Hutchison to buy Telefonica UK unit for $15.4b

MADRID, Jan 23 (Reuters) : Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd  has agreed to buy Telefonica's  British mobile unit O2 for up to 10.25 billion pounds ($15.4 billion), hastening the consolidation of Britain's telecoms industry.

Hutchison already operates the Three Mobile network in Britain, and buying second-ranked O2, which has about 22 million subscribers, from the Spanish group will make it the top mobile operator in the country. The move comes only weeks after former state monopoly BT  entered exclusive talks with the owners of EE, Britain's biggest mobile operator to create a dominant provider of fixed and mobile phones and internet services. BT opted for EE rather than buying O2.

The deal is also the boldest bet yet for Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing, as he revamps his European telecoms business.

Having been in at the start of the mobile revolution in Britain in the 1990s as the founder of Orange, Hutchison returned in 2003 with the launch of its third generation Three network.