Hutchison Whampoa is planning to acquire some assets of Italian mobile phone group Blu to facilitate its third-generation mobile business in the country.
Hutchison Whampoa spokeswoman Laura Cheung yesterday said: 'As [managing director] Mr Canning Fok said earlier, we are not interested in any second-generation business in Europe. We are only interested in buying its cell sites.'
Reuters reported over the weekend that H3G - Hutchison's mobile subsidiary in Italy - and three other mobile phone groups in the country, Telecom Italia Mobile, Wind and Omnitel, have separately filed formal offers to buy Blu. The report said Blu's shareholders were due to meet on March 5 to discuss the sale.
Blu, the smallest of Italy's four mobile phone groups, has been for sale since failing to clinch a 3G licence at an auction in October 2000. It started operations in May 2000 and has a market share of 4 per cent, according to Reuters.
Ms Cheung gave no details on the proposed purchase price yesterday.
'I have been told that, after the first expressions of interests, Blu has received offers from TIM, Wind and H3G,' Reuters quoted Italian communications minister Maurizio Gasparri as saying on the sidelines of a European Union meeting in Spain on Friday.
