Liberty Global this week confirmed that it is holding talks that could lead to a takeover offer for Caribbean-focussed operator Cable & Wireless Communications.
After widespread media speculation on the subject, Cable & Wireless issued a statement to say discussions are ongoing about a possible cash and stock offer, and Liberty Global immediately followed suit.
"There can be no certainty that any offer will be made or on the terms on which any offer might be made," the U.S. cable group said.
While the companies themselves declined to share further details, the Financial Times cited unnamed sources as saying that the negotiations are centred on a $5.5 billion (€4.9 billion) price tag, plus Cable & Wireless’ $2.6 billion in net debt. The Wall Street Journal’s sources also suggested an overall figure of around $8 billion (€7.2 billion).
Liberty Global has concentrated on expanding its operations in Europe in recent years, with the acquisitions of Virgin Media in the U.K. and Netherlands-based Ziggo, and the ongoing purchase of Belgium’s Base, which is currently being examined by EU authorities. It also showed interest in Vodafone, but talks between the pair with a view to merging their operations in certain markets collapsed earlier this year.
However, the firm is not new to the Caribbean…nor to Cable & Wireless.
Liberty Global chairman John Malone was a major shareholder in Columbus International, the Barbados-based network operator that Cable & Wireless agreed to acquire late last year in a $1.85 billion deal.
The deal closed in March, leaving Malone with a 13% stake in Cable & Wireless.
Liberty Global and Cable & Wireless have complementary operations in the Americas.
Liberty Global offers cable services in Chile and Puerto Rico under its Li LAC umbrella, a recently-created tracking stock for the firm’s Latin American operations.
In Chile its VTR operation had 2.7 million revenue-generating units (RGUs) as of the end of June, the majority being video, broadband and fixed telephony customers, although it also had a small number of mobile customers via an MVNO deal.
It offers services in Puerto Rico as Liberty Cablevision and had 763,000 voice, Internet and TV RGUs at mid-2015.
Cable & Wireless serves the Caribbean islands, Panama and the Bahamas. It had 6.09 million customers at the end of June, the majority in the above mentioned markets, but also including a small number at its Seychelles operations. 3.84 million of the total were mobile customers, 1.13 million fixed-line and the remainder split between video and broadband.
