The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) began an assessment of an acquisition of CK Hutchison’s towers by Cellnex Telecom, a day after regulators in Italy announced a probe on a similar transaction there.

In a brief statement the CMA explained it planned to look into any competition implications from the sale of the assets, which are currently used by mobile operator 3 UK.

The regulator invited interested parties to submit comments by 27 April.

A deadline for its final decision is yet to be announced.

The proposed deal is one of a number of separate purchases of CK Hutchison’s mobile tower assets in Europe, which had a total value of €10 billion. Of the six transactions only two are outstanding: the UK deal and the purchase of towers in Italy, which is the subject of a probe from competition regulators.

When it released figures for 2020, CK Hutchison’s 3 Europe business estimated the sale of tower assets in Italy would be completed during Q2, with the UK assets off its books by the end of the year.