(Telecompaper) Vimpelcom and CK Hutchison have reached an agreement to merge their Italian operators Wind and 3 Italia into a 50-50 joint venture, creating Italy's largest mobile operator. The companies first confirmed the merger talks in May and have now reached an agreement on the structure and management. The deal sees Italy the latest market to go from four to three mobile operators. The merger entity will have just over 31 million mobile customers and 2.8 million fixed customers, with annual revenues of around EUR 6.4 billion. The owners expect to realise savings of at least EUR 5 billion on operating and investment costs thanks to the merger.