Spain’s Telefonica to merge British unit O2 with Virgin Media

(Reuters) – Liberty Global has agreed to merge its Virgin Media cable company with the O2 mobile business owned by Spain’s Telefonica to create a major new force in the British telecoms market.

The companies said on Thursday that O2 would be valued at 12.7 billion pounds ($15.65 billion) and Virgin Media at 18.7 billion pounds, both on a total enterprise value basis.

“O2 to be transferred into the joint venture on a debt-free basis, while Virgin Media to be contributed with £11.3 billion of net debt and debt-like items,” the companies said in a joint statement.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)