Kabel Deutschland is to revert to its initial plan of an IPO. It emerged over the weekend that the company has dropped plans for an outright sale of the cablenet.
The decision means that owner Providence Equity will now maintain a share in the company that had attracted interest from other investment companies thought to include Advent International, Bain Capital, Carlyle Group, CVC Capital Partners and Hellman & Friedman.
A total of five bids were pitched at between €5 billion and €5.5 billion.
No details on the proportion of the company that will be offered to the market have been made public, a €1 billion proposal has been mooted, with an announcement on timing possibly as early as this week.
A spokesman for Kabel Deutschland told Broadband TV News that the company would not be commenting on speculation.
In the period to December 31, 2009, KDG grew premium RGUs by 99,000 units to 1,039,000. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 9.5% to reach €164.5 million compared to €150.2 million in the same period in 2008.
