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		</div><p>A UK watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has urged European regulators to effectively block the €12.7bn merger of mobile phone networks Three and O2.</p>
<p>The CMA has written to the European Commission (EU) to say the merger would be a &#8220;significant impediment to effective competition&#8221; in the UK mobile phone market.</p>
<p>European regulators have been studying the deal for several months since Three owner Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong entered into exclusive talks to buy O2 from Spain&#8217;s Telefonica in January 2015.</p>
<p>The deadline for the EC to make its ruling on the deal is May 19, although regulators close to the process say a decision may come before that.</p>
<p>The CMA said the merger would cut the country&#8217;s four major mobile phone players from four to three, which would not be in the interests of consumer competition.</p>
<p>The four major networks in the UK are Vodafone, Three, 02 and EE.</p>
<p>CMA chief executive Alex Chisholm said in the letter that the appropriate action in this case &#8220;is the divestment &#8211; to an appropriate buyer approved by the Commission &#8211; of either the Three or O2 mobile network businesses, in entirety, or possibly allowing for limited &#8216;carve-outs&#8217; from the divested business&#8221;.</p>
<p>This would in effect mean that Hutchison Whampoa would have to sell all, or most, of one of the two networks, negating the point of the merger to create a larger business.</p>
<p>O2 has around 28.5% of the UK market, but a merger with Three&#8217;s share of just over 8% would see it climb to become the biggest operator in the UK.</p>
<p>The CMA cleared the £12.5bn (€15.5bn) sale of EE to telecoms giant BT in January, creating a combination that will have around 35 million mobile, broadband, and TV customers.</p>
<p>The deal saw BT re-enter the mobile market, but the CMA said that deal was not likely to harm competition in the industry.<br />
Hutchison Whampoa is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, who also owns pharmacist Superdrug and Northumbrian Water.</p>
<p>The billionaire also has investments in Southern Water, Wales and West Utilities, UK Power Networks, and Thamesport and Harwich ports.</p>
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