COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Danish telecom group TDC said Friday it had agreed to sell its Swiss offshoot Sunrise to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for 3.3 billion Swiss francs (2.5 billion euros, 3.3 billion dollars).

"Today CVC and TDC have signed an agreement on selling TDC's Swiss subsidiary Sunrise to the private equity firm CVC," TDC said in a statement.

It added that "the completion of the transaction is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2010, once approvals have been obtained from the Swiss competition and relevant regulatory authorities."

Up until just a few months ago, TDC had been planning to merge Sunrise with France Telecom's Orange's Swiss business.

It finally abandoned the plans in June following a veto by the Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) a few months earlier on the grounds that a merged company would have taken a dominant position in the mobile telephone market alongside top Swiss telecoms provider Swisscom, leaving the country with just two networks.

Friday's announced "transaction, which values Sunrise at an enterprise value of 3.3 billion Swiss francs, demonstrates CVC's commitment to expand its activities in the telecommunications sector and enables Sunrise to pursue its challenger strategy on the Swiss market," TDC said in its statement.