ZURICH (Reuters) – Swisscom’s planned acquisition of Vodafone Italia has been cleared by Italy’s competition watchdog and its industry ministry, the Swiss telecoms group said.
The 8 billion euro ($8.34 billion) deal was approved by both the Italian Competition Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato) and the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT), the Swiss firm said.
“This paves the way to the creation of a leading converged challenger in Italy, as all competent authorities approved the transaction,” Swisscom said in a statement.
Swisscom said it expects the transaction to complete in the first quarter of 2025.
Reuters had previously reported that the Italian antitrust body was preparing to greenlight the purchase.
($1 = 0.9589 euros)
(Writing by Dave Graham)