MADRID, June 13 (Reuters) - British telecoms operatorVodafone will keep Spain's Ono as a separate company fortax reasons, a spokesman for the group said on Monday, after its7.2 billion-euro ($8.1 billion) acquisition of the cableoperator was sealed in 2014.
Spain's Supreme Court recently ruled a tax imposed byMadrid's city council on telecoms companies for their use ofland was legal, potentially opening the door to more taxes ofthis kind.
Vodafone will not fully merge its Spanish business with Onoas a result, although it will keep control of the company.
"Following a recent ruling, the tax burden the integratedcompany would have to contend with would be a lot higher than ifthe two companies remained separate," the spokesman said.
The spokesman added that the new structure of the deal wouldhave no impact on the group's close to 18 million clients inSpain as of the end of last year. ($1 = 0.8876 euros) (Reporting by Robert Hetz and Andres Gonzalez, Writing by SarahWhite, Editing by Paul Day)
Vodafone (VOD)
