UK's CMA says no view on Vodafone-Three tie-up until deal announced

The chief executive of Britain's anti-trust regulator said she could not give a view on the proposed merger of Vodafone and CK Hutchison's UK businesses until the deal is formally agreed. "The situation that we're in is because we don't yet have that as a merger to review, we can't give, in a sense, a view now," Sarah Cardell, head of the Competition and Markets Authority, told a panel of lawmakers on Tuesday.

The Vodafone-Three merger is expected to face intense regulatory scrutiny because it will reduce the number of mobile networks in Britain from four to three.