Telenet signs final Interkabel acquisition agreement

The Belgian cable operator Telenet has signed a final agreement with the municipal cable operators and their joint venture Interkabel to acquire the TV activities of the networks.

The accord is based on last autumn’s original agreement between the parties and makes the integration between Telenet and the Interkabel networks a reality. The price represents a value of 8.3 times the EBITDA. This is about 427 million euro, or seven million euro more than an earlier offer by Belgacom, according to Belgian newspaper reports. It is also seventy million euro higher than the original Telenet offer.

When the take-over is finalised, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium will have a single cable operator and a single digital TV offer. Telenet already sold broadband access and telephony services over the Interkabel networks and can now offer full triple play services including analogue and digital TV. The deal will add almost 800,000 TV customers bringing Telenet’s total to about 2.5 million homes served.

Incumbent telco Belgacom tried to stop the takeover by filing a complaint with the authorities claiming the municipalities should have started an open tender rather than sell the TV business to Telenet. This bid was unsuccessful and now Telenet is able to create the largest Belgium cable network.