The deal, which is subject to approval by Swiss authorities, will be submitted to France Télécom ’s board in the week starting Jan. 9, the company said on Saturday in a statement.

France Télécom, led by Stéphane Richard, is shedding assets in Europe, where phone companies are vying for a shrinking pool of new customers amid tightening regulation, to embrace faster-growing markets in Africa and the Middle East.

“It makes sense to exit the difficult Swiss market and may give them more flexibility on the cash-flow side,” said Giovanni Montalti, an analyst in London at Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux. The deal will leave France Télécom with European operations in countries including Spain, Poland and Britain, along with its home market, while its emerging-market footprint includes Kenya, Cameroon and Tunisia.

Perella Weinberg Partners and Lazard advised France Télécom on the Swiss sale.

Apax has participated in more than 20 deals this year, including the $6.5 billion buyout last month of the American wound-treatment company Kinetic Concepts, its largest in 2011, according to Bloomberg data.

France Télécom’s decision to exit Switzerland follows an attempt to merge its operations there with its rival Sunrise, a deal rejected by competition regulators last year.

A combination of Orange Switzerland with Sunrise would leave the country of about eight million residents with two mobile operators: the merged entity and Swisscom, the former Swiss phone monopoly.

The French company’s shares have fallen 23 percent this year, outpacing a 15 percent decline in the Bloomberg Europe Telecommunications Index, valuing it at about 32 billion euros.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/business/france-telecom-to-sell-orange-switzerland-to-apax-partners.html?partner=rss&emc=rss