Hutchison Whampoa bids UK's mobile operators EE, O2

(MENAFN) Hutchison Whampoa, the owner of Britain's fourth largest mobile operator 3 Group, is preparing a bid for EE or O2, who is already in talks on a deal with BT Group, Oman Observer reported.

Sources reported that the Chinese company could make a bid for either EE or Telefonica's O2 by the end of the year as BT is expected to decide on a deal in coming weeks.

BT is in talks with both O2 and EE, which is owned by Orange and Deutsche Telekom. They confirmed conducting talks to sell Britain's biggest mobile network operator EE to BT as part of a wider review of its options.

A deal with EE would make a lot of sense for Hutchison given the high quality of the asset and because the companies already cooperate in Britain through a network sharing agreement deal, the sources said.