EE's Olaf Swantee to leave after BT takeover completes

LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest mobile operator EE said its chief executive Olaf Swantee will step down when the company is absorbed by BT after a lengthy takeover process finalises this month.

During Swantee's leadership the joint venture between Deutsche Telekom (Xetra: 555750 - news) and France's Orange (Taiwan OTC: 4554.TWO - news) established a lead over rivals by launching Britain's first 4G service in 2012 under new brand EE.

BT agreed to buy EE for 12.5 billion pounds in February, creating the dominant operator in broadband, fixed line and mobile led by BT's Gavin Patterson.

The deal was provisionally cleared by regulators in October, and a final verdict is due later this month.

EE said on Monday that Marc Allera, currently EE's chief commercial officer, would take Swantee's place as chief executive when the takeover completes.

The group, which competes with Telefonica (Amsterdam: TA6.AS - news) 's O2, Hutchison (HKSE: 0013-OL.HK - news) 's Three and Vodafone, was the first European operator with 10 million 4G customers, and it said last year it was on track to exceed 14 million by the end of 2015.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young)