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NEW YORK, New York (CMC) – Liberty Global Plc, the largest international cable company active in 14 countries, including 12 in Europe, has agreed to buy Cable & Wireless Communications Plc for £3.5 billion (US$5.3 billion), Bloomberg News reported Monday.
It said, the cash-and-stock transaction will extend Liberty owner John Malone’s empire deeper into Latin America, giving the US billionaire greater leverage for more deals in the region.
According to a notice posted on its website, Liberty has revenue of US$18.2 billion and employs 38,00 people. It has more than 100 million customers including 56 million video, internet and voice subscribers.
“The deal represents a multiple of 10.7 times Cable & Wireless Communications’ adjusted annual earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortisation, after taking into consideration cost synergies,” Bloomberg reported.
It said “Cable & Wireless shareholders will get a special threepence a share dividend at the deal’s close. “The transaction is valued at 78.04 pence per CWC share, based on Friday’s closing price,” Bloomberg added.
The purchase will give Malone a critical mass in Latin America, where he created a tracking stock in July called LiLAC for Liberty Global’s assets in Chile and Puerto Rico.
Malone is reported to have spent more than US$50 billion the past 10 years amassing cable companies across Europe.
“Now, with Cable & Wireless, he is poised to do the same in faster-growing economies in Latin America, and may even spin off that unit in the future, people familiar with the matter said last month, when the companies announced they were in talks,” Bloomberg said.
As part of the deal Liberty Global will take on CWC’s net debt, which was US$2.7 billion as of September 30, 2015,” the report added.
Earlier this year, Cable and Wireless announced that it had completed a US$1.85 billion acquisition of 100 per cent of the equity of Columbus International Inc.
The two companies had announced the plan in early November 2014.
