By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -EU antitrust regulators will investigate whether U.S. investment firm KKR provided incorrect or misleading information in its 22-billion-euro ($26 billion) acquisition of Telecom Italia’s (TIM) fixed-line network deal, the European Commission said on Thursday.
The Commission, which acts as the competition enforcer in the 27-country bloc, approved the deal unconditionally in May last year, attributing this in part to long-term agreements between FiberCop and telecoms companies Fastweb and Iliad.
FiberCop is Telecom Italia’s last-mile grid unit.
“Under the investigation opened today, the Commission will assess whether KKR provided incorrect or misleading information about these agreements,” the EU watchdog said in a statement.
The Commission has in recent years cracked down on companies providing misleading information during merger reviews and handed out hefty fines.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)
