Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Limited agreed to acquire Telefónica UK Limited from Telefónica, S.A. (CATS:TEF) for approximately £10.3 billion on January 23, 2015. Under the terms of the agreement, the consideration involves approximately £9.3 billion in cash and additional £1 billion after the combined cash Telefónica UK Limited and Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Limited reaches an agreed threshold. The transaction is subject to due diligence, signing of definitive agreements, approval from shareholders of Hutchinson, approval of European Commission, Telefónica, S.A. having completed its pre-completion reorganization in respect to O2 UK Group, corporate and regulatory approvals and expected to close by June 30, 2016 and under specified circumstances long stop date cannot may be extended upto September 30, 2016.

Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Limited signed definitive agreement to acquire Telefónica UK Limited from Telefónica, S.A. (CATS:TEF) on March 24, 2015. The deal is still subject to the approval of the relevant regulatory authorities and the obtaining of waivers to some contractual provisions affected by the sale, including those related to network alliances, as well as change of control provisions under certain contractual arrangements with third parties. Conditions must be satisfied by no later than June 30, 2016, except that in specified circumstances under the agreement in which this date may be extended to September 30, 2016. Telefónica intends to allocate a substantial part of the proceeds from the disposal to reduce its indebtedness.

As on April 7, 2015, the final deadline date is extended to September 30, 2015. The transaction will be funded by £6 billion bridge facility from HSBC Bank plc. For the financial year ending December 31, 2014, Telefonica UK had revenues of £5.69 billion, EBIT was £487 million, total common equity was £4.59 billion and net profit of £359 million. As of November 9, 2015 European Commission extends review period to April 18 2016 after the Hutchison asked for an extension of the review period. On December 4, 2015, the European Commission has decided not to grant Britain's competition regulator authority to review the transaction. As on February 3, 2016, Ofcom urges Brussels to block the merger. As of February 15, 2016, CK Hutchison received a statement of objection from the EU Competition Commission. CK reaffirmed the horizontal combination can enhance the strength of the smallest operators and benefit customers and said it will continue to close cooperate with the commission to respond to the places concerned by the authority. As on March 3, 2016, the European Commission has extended the date of its decision from April 22, 2016 to May 19, 2016. Competition and Markets Authority has urged European regulators to block the transaction. The deadline for the European Commission to make its ruling on the deal is May 19, 2016 although regulators close to the process say a decision may come before that. The transaction was prohibited by European Commission on May 11, 2016. As of June 29, 2016, it was announced that there is the possibility of a legal challenge for European Commission rejection.

HSBC Bank plc acted as financial advisor to Hutchison 3G UK Holdings. UBS Investment Bank acted as financial advisor for Telefónica, S.A. PWC acted as accountant in the transaction. Moelis & Company UK LLP acted as financial advisor for Hutchison Whampoa Limited. Pablo García-Nieto, Guillermo Uriarte, Nicolás Martín, Gavin Davies, Nick Moore, Brian O'Malley, Joseph Dennis, Lisa Tat, Laura Stuckey, Sarah Ries-Coward, Aisling Mannion, Hayley Brady, Sam Clearwater, David Coulling, Abigail Dean, Miriam Everett and Claire Wiseman of Herbert Smith Freehills acted as legal advisors to Telefónica, S.A. Nick Rees, Iain Wagstaff, Daniel Turgel, Jane Cai, Craig Dally, Kyle Colvin, Mantraraj Budhdev, Avi Cohen, Joshua Grabiner, Youngmi Lee, Emily Simmons, Caitlin Wilson, Gavin Jackson, Anand Patel, Stephanie Featherstone, Robert Ardern, Danny Ginsberg, Katie Trim, Michael O'Halloran, Vanessa Havard-Williams, Ruth Knox, Melanie Shanker, Azhar Khan, Alice Melton, Jonathan Vick, Daniel Turgel, Edward Lane, Jillian Naylor, Graham Rowlands-Hempel, Nick Marshall, Juliette Graham(Fisher), David Speakman, James Jaques, Kate Kelleher, Rachel Morgan, Sumaiyah Khan, Tim Cox, Graeme Tricker, Philip Goss, Sarah Opie, Rebecca Birdsall, Karen Clarke, Harry Eddis, Sarah Parkhouse, James Henson, Sumit Indwar, Celyn Armstrong, Clare Enright, Stuart Davis, Valean Gherendi, Andrew Vickery, Toby Grimstone, Paul Appleyard, Danielle Richardson, Robert Ludwig, Nemone Franks, Tommy Chen, Yohan Liyanage, Richard Barker, Andrew Byrne, Monique Hardinge, David Howorth, John Patten, John Crozier, Melissa Fai, Mathew Baldwin, Matthew McCarthy, Greg Palmer, Joanna Edworthy, Alexander Cartwright, Hamish McAvaney, Jonathan Fransman, Michael Munk, Kathryn Ludlow, Ben Carroll, Lev Klyuvgant, Lucy Blake, Dominic Winter, Alan Walker, Jamie Coomber, Geoffrey Ellis, Mark Burgess-Smith, Christopher Stonehill, Matthew Topp, Tilak Jagatia, James Henderson, Julia Belopilskaya, Anna Saenko, Nikolay Altukhov, Alina Dyumina, Tatiana Lashina, Robert Cleaver, Andrew Cohn, David Hopper, Charlotte Ling, Myra Leung, David Irvine, Maggie Ng, Rachel Leung, Xi Yang, Nelson Tai, Alejandro Ortiz and Clare Bouwer at Linklaters LLP acted as the legal advisors for Hutchison Whampoa. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP acted as legal advisor to Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Limited.