Liberty Global Agrees to Buy Rest of Telenet for $1 Billion

Thomas Seal, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Liberty Global Plc has bid about 929 million euros ($1 billion) to win full control of Belgian carrier Telenet Group Holding NV.

The cable and wireless group offered €22 per share in cash, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. That’s a 59% premium to Telenet’s closing price on Wednesday, the last day of trading before shares were halted.

Liberty, which has been Telenet’s controlling shareholder since 2007, is consolidating in some markets while shedding other assets. The deal comes after Telenet’s stock had declined by about 50% in the last twelve months, giving it a market value of €1.7 billion.

Belgium is Liberty Global’s fourth-largest market after the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The company has also held exploratory talks with UK network builder CityFibre about potential combinations of their UK broadband networks, people familiar with the matter had said.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:

Liberty’s offer of €22 a share to acquire the rest of the shares it doesn’t own at its Belgian subsidiary Telenet (37.7%) fits a strategy of consolidating in markets where the company is a scaled converged rival to the incumbent. The €900 million offer is likely to succeed thanks to a rich 59% premium to the March 15 closing price amid sustained market concerns about the effect of a looming new market entry and signals confidence in Telenet’s long-term outlook.

— Erhan Gurses, BI telecom analyst

If Liberty and Telenet reach 95% ownership of the shares and have acquired 90% of the shares targeted by the offer, a so-called squeeze-out process will follow for Liberty to buy the rest, Liberty’s statement said.

(Updates with additional deal terms throughout)