Dutch cable group United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) says it is interested in acquiring Princes Holdings, owned jointly by Independent Newspapers and TCI, a US cable group. However, it will consider a deal only if its own bid for Cablelink is successful.
UPC became the second bidder formally to declare its intentions yesterday when it said it would bid for Cablelink, which is based mainly in Dublin. Princes Holdings is the second-largest cable operator in the Republic, with 150,000 customers.
Telecom Eireann is a 75 per cent shareholder in the national cable company which has 365,000 subscribers in an area holding about 500,000 homes. RTE holds the remaining 25 per cent stake in the company.
UPC's vice-president of new business, Mr John Riordan, said if its Cablelink bid were successful, then UPC would be interested in buying
Princes Holdings, "in order to complete the national roll-out". Princes Holdings, through its subsidiary, Irish Multinational, has 150,000 customers, of which about 80,000 subscribers are on its MMDS microwave system in less populated areas. "If there is an opportunity to create a large cluster which will give us scale and size, we are always looking for opportunity and Princes Holdings is a very fine business," Mr Riordan said.
UPC, which floated on the Nasdaq and on Amsterdam's stock exchange, AEX, last month, says it is the largest pan-European cable company and Europe's first multi-service provider of video, telephone and data services.
With a current market capitalisation of €4.14 million (£3.26 million), it has 3.4 million subscribers. It operates in the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Belgium and France and has a presence in the emerging markets of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and the Slovak Republic. It is 60 per cent owned by the US cable company, UIH, and Microsoft owns €295 million worth - about 8 per cent - of its ordinary shares.
Although there are many potential bidders for Cablelink, which has about 350,000 subscribers, he said he believed only a handful would emerge as serious contenders because of the significant follow-up investment costs involved in upgrading and expanding the Cablelink network.
Mr Riordan declined to say how much the company would bid for Cablelink, which some industry analysts believe will fetch £300 million (€381 million) or more. Other cable groups which have declared an interest include Cable Management Ireland (CMI), which has licences in North Dublin, NTL, currently rolling out a network in Northern Ireland and the TCI/Princes Holdings consortium. Cablelink has about 62 per cent of the national cable business.
