Retail heavyweights Sir Charles Dunstone and Richard Branson have agreed to sell Virgin Mobile France to Numericable in a £265m (€325m) deal.
Carphone, Europe‘s biggest independent mobile phone retailer, owns 46 per cent of Virgin Mobile France‘s holding company Omer Telecom Ltd while Branson‘s Virgin Group also owns 46 per cent with the balance held by management.
When it announced its results last week, Carphone said that while Virgin Mobile France “delivered a resilient performance,” it would be “best served by being part of a larger organisation”. Virgin Mobile is France‘s largest mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) with 1.5m customers.
For the year to 31 March, profit at Virgin Mobile fell to £1m from £7m, on revenue which decreased to £346m from £385m.
The deal remains conditional on the approval of the French Competition Authority.
