Interest in the upcoming sale of Poland’s fourth largest cable operator Aster by Mid Europa Partners (MEP) is growing rapidly.
Gazeta Prawna reports that MEP has supplied information about Aster to no fewer than 22 parties, seven of which are present in Poland and 15 are investment funds.
Officially, the names of only two of those parties – Polkomtel and the incumbent telco TPSA – are known, However, the others are understood to include UPC Polska, Vectra and Multimedia Poska, Poland’s three leading cable operators; PTC, the operator of the mobile network Era; the alternative telco Netia; and investment funds Advent and EQT.
EQT already has a presence in the CEE cable industry, being the leading player in Bulgaria, and is known to be interested in entering the Polish market. However, the favourites at this stage appear to be UPC Polska and Vectra.
Bids for Aster are being invited up to October 19, with a sale expected before the end of the year. MEP paid PLN1.6 billion (€403.5 million) for the operator in 2006 and is expected to earn at least PLN2.5 billion from the sale.