Hutchison Whampoa’s Three Europe businesses have been at the heart of many of the M&A deals which have recently been shaking up the region’s mobile operator landscape. The Hong Kong company has merged Three units in Austria (with Orange) and Ireland (with O2) to achieve greater scale, and is in the process of acquiring Telefonica’s O2 UK unit for up to £10.25bn. Now the parent firm says, assuming that deal passes muster with UK and EC competition regulators, it plans to sell a 33% stake in the combined business to five institutional investors for a total of up to £3.1bn ($4.7bn). The investments will help fund the purchase and are conditional on its being completed. Hutchison has already secured a…