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Thursday, December 18, 2014

Iliad founder to purchase Orange Switzerland for $2.9 billion, (NYSE: ORAN)

Telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel's NJJ Capital has agreed to purchase Swiss mobile operator Orange Switzerland from private equity group Apax Partners for 2.8 billion Swiss francs ($2.9 billion), Apax said in a statement.The deal marks a new development for billionaire Niel who set up low-cost telecoms operator Iliad in France and attempted to enter the U.S. market this year via a bid for T-Mobile but this was rejected.Orange Switzerland ranks as the country's third and smallest operator with almost 2.2 million customers and revenues of 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.33 billion).It has 20 percent of Switzerland's mobile market while rival telecom operators Swisscom and Sunrise have 59 and 21 percent, respectively.

Orange SA, formerly France Telecom SA, is a France-based company that is engaged, principally, in the provision of integrated telecommunications services. Shares of ORAN fell by 0.36% or $-0.06/share to $16.74. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $11.82 and as high as $18.05. On average, 638502 shares of ORAN exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1935666.



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