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Telecoms tycoon Niel to buy Orange Switzerland for 1.8 billion pounds

PARIS (Reuters) - Telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel's NJJ Capital has agreed to buy Swiss mobile operator Orange Switzerland from private equity group Apax Partners for 2.8 billion Swiss francs (1.8 billion pounds), Apax said in a statement.

The deal, struck through his NJJ Capital personal holding company, marks a new turn for Niel.

He triggered a price war in France through the launch of Free, a bundled telecoms and TV offering, by his 55 percent-owned listed company Iliad , but he had to abandon in October his attempt to enter the American market when the owners of T-Mobile US rejected his offer.

(Reporting by Andrew Callus; editing by Blaise Robinson)