Vimpelcom and Hutchison in Italian stalemate

The owners of Italian telcos Wind and 3 Italia have failed to reach an agreement to merge the two firms, with negotiations stalling over the future ownership of the venture. Wind’s owner, Russian telecoms group Vimpelcom, was looking for a 50:50 merger between the operators, but 3 Italia’s parent company Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong was seeking to take control of the enlarged entity, Bloomberg reports. A statement from the Russian firm says it will continue to ‘explore value-adding transactions’. If the tie-up between Italy’s number three and four mobile players did go ahead, the merged firm would take top spot in the market, just ahead of Telecom Italia and close rival Vodafone.