Liberty Global Inc., the Douglas County-based cable company controlled by billionaire John Malone, agreed to buy Unitymedia GmbH for about $2.98 billion, gaining access to markets in 10 of Germany’s 20-largest cities.
Liberty Global will buy the second-biggest cable-television operator in Germany from BC Partners Ltd. and Apollo Management LP, the private-equity firms that control Cologne-based Unitymedia, and also assume about $2.25 billion of the company’s net debt, it said in a statement.
“It will be good for Unitymedia to be part of a bigger group,” said Stephan Haber, a credit analyst at Unicredit Group in Munich.
For Malone, 68, the purchase would mark a comeback after he was blocked by regulators from buying cable networks in Germany in 2002. With the deal, Liberty Global will get the largest cable operator in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, among Germany’s most prosperous and densely populated regions. Unitymedia provides cable services to 6.4 million subscribers in cities including Dusseldorf and Frankfurt.
Liberty Global was spun off from Liberty Media Corp. in 2004 and owns cable systems in Europe, South America and Asia.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2010.
