Hutchison Whampoa, the Asian parent company of mobile operator Three, has reportedly threatened to withdraw from the UK market if its network is not guaranteed spectrum in the forthcoming 4G auction. According to The Sunday Times, Hutchison MD Canning Fok told the Prime Minister at a meeting last month that the conglomerate would stop investment, or even close down its mobile operations in the UK, if they were not allocated sufficient bandwidth.

Hutchison – which is apparently Britains largest foreign investor – has since denied the claims. “The speculations that Hutchison Whampoa may stop investment in the UK and/or quit the UK telecom market are totally untrue and groundless,” said a spokesman for the company, adding that “Hutchison Whampoa is actively looking at various different investment opportunities in the UK.”

Ofcom initially proposed that Three would be guaranteed bandwidth in the 4G auction, after the mobile operator, the UK’s smallest, claimed that its business would be unsustainable otherwise. This claim has since been disputed by rival operators, one of the many factors that has helped continually delay the auction.