LONDON – Eighty-five thousand billion lire. This is the price that France Telecom will pay Vodafone to take home the English Orange, the third UK operator of mobile phones with Umts license. Record acquisition, which confirms the advances published yesterday by some French and English newspapers. A new company, “New Orange”, will be created from the integration of Orange with France Telecom’s mobile telephony activities, which will be listed on the Paris, London and New York stock exchanges between the end of the year and the beginning of 2001. A new operator destined to become the number two in Europe, reaching about thirty million subscribers by the end of the year. Michel Bon, president of France Telecom, flew to London yesterday to conclude the agreement. And today, after the announcement, he declared that “the acquisition of Orange and the creation of New Orange are a fundamental step in France Telecom’s international strategy, the road to becoming one of the leaders in the sector in Europe and in the world”. The agreement provides for France Telecom to pay Vodafone partly in cash, partly in shares: a cash payment of 44 thousand billion lire, 36 thousand in shares issued by France Telecom, while the rest consists of recovery of Orange’s debts, contracts participating in the auction for the Umts license. No reversal at the top of the “New Orange” will be led by Orange CEO Hank Snook and his financial director Graham Howe. France Telecom will use the proceeds of the placement to buy a stake in Vodafone. In turn, Vodafone will find itself, after the sale of Orange, with a stake of just under 10 percent of the French group, but will not remain its long-term shareholder, as France Telcom has undertaken to repurchase all its shareholding within one couple of years.