Hu Yun Qi
BRUSSELS: United Arab Emirates telecoms group E& has offered concessions to ease EU concerns that it has benefited from perverse foreign subsidies in its acquisition of some of the assets of Czech telecoms company PPF, the EU competition authority said on Monday.
The move by e&, formerly known as Etisalat, comes a month after the European Commission launched an investigation into unlimited guarantees from the United Arab Emirates and loans from UAE-owned banks that directly facilitated the deal.
The EU executive, which acts as competition watchdog for the 27-nation European Union (EU) and exercises its powers under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), said there was sufficient evidence to show that e&’s foreign subsidies distort the EU internal market.
“We can confirm that a remedy has been submitted and the new legal deadline is December 4th,” a Commission spokesman said in an email, without providing further details.
The deadline to decide whether to approve or block the deal was previously October 15.
e& did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FSR, which came into force last year, allows the EU to target improper foreign government support for domestic companies that buy EU companies or take part in EU public tenders.
Published on July 29, 2024, 8:01 PM IST
Join a community of over 2 million industry professionals
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest insights and analysis.
Download the ETTelecom app
Get real-time updates Save your favorite articles Scan to download the app
Source link