Carphone Warehouse to Buy Centrica's Onetel for 132 Mln Pounds

Carphone Warehouse Group Plc, Europe's largest mobile phone retailer, agreed to buy Centrica Plc's Onetel telecommunications unit for 132 million pounds ($234 million) in cash to add about 1.5 million U.K. customers.

London-based Carphone Warehouse plans to fund the transaction from bank lending and will pay an additional 22.2 million pounds over three years if customer-recruitment targets from Centrica's British Gas unit exceed forecasts, according to a Regulatory News Service statement released today.

Centrica, the U.K.'s biggest energy supplier, has been seeking a buyer for Onetel since September as it seeks to focus on its energy and related home services operations.