UK fund to buy French cable group for e1.25bn

BRUSSELS: UK investment fund Cinven won permission from European Commission on Friday to buy French UPC cable television business from Liberty Global for e1.25bn ($1.59 bn) in cash.

The deal will group cable networks UPC-Noos and Numericable, leaving them in control of nearly all of France’s cable services with a combined 4m customers.

“The Commission concluded the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area,” an EU executive said.

The move will give them a stronger base from which to compete against telecom operators, which have grabbed the lion’s share of the country’s market for broadband services.

Liberty Global and its predecessor companies had built UPC France with acquisitions, including Noos in ’04 for e650m and Intercomm in ’00.

UPC France has about 1.6m customers buying television, high-speed Internet and telephone service but it is much smaller than its satellite and telecoms rivals.

France is one of Europe’s most competitive markets for broadband services. It is dominated by telecoms firms providing high-speed Internet access over ADSL phone lines, including France Telecom, which has less than half the residential market, and Iliad, which has an 18% market share.