Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa has reportedly moved forward with plans to acquire Orange Austria and merge it with its own Austrian mobile unit, 3 Austria, tabling a EUR1.4 billion bid.

According to Reuters, which cites local press reports, a deal could go through as soon as next month, though neither party was prepared to comment.

The merger between third-placed operator Orange (2.2 million connections in Q3) and fourth-placed 3 (1.3 million) would create a stronger challenger to Austria’s two largest mobile operators, Telekom Austria’s A1 (5.2 million) and T-Mobile (3.9 million).

It is reported that, if the deal goes through, Hutchison plans to sell excess base stations, spectrum and Orange’s prepaid ‘Yesss’ brand to A1.

Orange Austria is 65 percent-owned by private-equity firm Mid Europa Partners, with the rest held by France Telecom. The two partners acquired the business in 2007 for an enterprise value of EUR1.4 billion, the same price reportedly offered by 3 this week. Austria is one of several European markets where France Telecom is reviewing the possible disposal of assets seen as ‘non-core.’

According to the latest Wireless Intelligence data, Austria had 12.7 million connections in total in Q3 2011, giving the country a mobile penetration rate of almost 150 percent.