If you want to know where the biggest growth opportunities currently are in Europe, why not ask Liberty Global or Telekom Austria?
Both have recently embarked on high-profile acquisition sprees that are making their competitors sit up and take notice.
Interviewed by Bloomberg, John Malone said Liberty would study opportunities in Southern Europe as the region’s economy improves.
No doubt smarting from its recent setback in Germany, where the company was beaten to the draw by Vodafone in acquiring Kabel Deutschland, Liberty has realised that the market in Northern Europe, both east and west, is pretty much at saturation point.
The south, on the other hand, does indeed present opportunities, be they on the Iberian peninsular or further east in the Balkan region. In the latter case, Liberty has until now only been present in Romania (UPC and Focus Sat), but there are certainly markets in the former Yugoslavia – Serbia, for instance – which it may be tempted to look at.
Telekom Austria has meanwhile already pushed into South East Europe through acquiring – amongst others – the leading Croatian cable operator B.net and mobile company M-Tel in Bulgaria. Speaking to the Austrian press, its CEO Hannes Amtesreiter said it is interested in the Croatian alternative telco H1 Telekom and Serbia Broadband (SBB), which is currently backed by Mid Europa Partners (MEP).
Amtesreiter also said that Telekom Austria aims to eventually become both the leading and most integrated provider in South East Europe.
Telekom Austria has since June 2012 listed América Móvil, owned by the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, as a 22.76% shareholder. This has stabilised the company, which had previously experienced financial difficulties, and helped in its expansion plans.
While there are clearly other important and well-established players, among them Deutsche Telekom, in the region, both Liberty and Telecom Austria are in a good position to exploit new opportunities as and when they arise.
