VENTURE CAPITAL POST

France's competition watchdog said on Thursday it had given its go-ahead to Numericable's purchase of Virgin Mobile France. Numericable, which is also in the process of buying number 2 mobile operator SFR, agreed in June to buy Virgin Mobile France from owners Britain's Carphone Warehouse and entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Group for an enterprise value of 325 million euros.

France's competition watchdog said on Thursday it had given its go-ahead to Numericable's purchase of Virgin Mobile France.Numericable, which is also in the process of buying number 2 mobile operator SFR, agreed in June to buy Virgin Mobile France from owners Britain's Carphone

It could take the French competition authority nine months to evaluate the possible takeover of Vivendi's SFR by Bouygues or Numericable for antitrust issues, Reuters reported.

Private equity-owned Numericable and Merlin Entertainments held successful initial public offerings despite holding higher debts.

Numericable experienced a significant and record increase in share prices on its first day on the stock exchange.

Cable operator Numericable would be betting on its new fiber technology to attract investors before its planned IPO.

According to sources, Numericable hired Rothschild to work on a Eur5 billion Paris Stock Market debut within the year.