BONN, Germany, June 30 (Reuters) - Germany's cartel officewould scrutinise any proposed asset swap between Vodafone and Liberty Global in Europe's biggesteconomy, it said on Tuesday.
Vodafone and Liberty have begun talks on swapping selectedassets. No further details have been revealed by the companies,but Germany is one of the top markets where the two overlap.
"We would look at it closely," cartel office PresidentAndreas Mundt told journalists when asked about a possiblecombination of cable and mobile assets in Germany.
Such a deal could attract the attention of EU competitionauthorities, but Mundt said that the German cartel office mayseek to conduct its own investigation.
Asked whether the cartel office would be likely to approvesuch a deal, he said that every case is different, noting thatnumerous takeover deals are "in the air" in the cable sector.
Two years ago the cartel office blocked a plan by KabelDeutschland to acquire smaller rival Tele Columbus.Kabel Deutschland was subsequently bought by Vodafone. (Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Georgina Prodhan;Editing by David Goodman)
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