Are we in for a year of major cable deals in Central and Eastern Europe?
Most readers may be forgiven for missing one that was announced just a couple of days before Christmas, when Starman, Estonia’s leading operator, acquired a 100% stake in its Lithuanian counterpart Cgates for close to €60 million.
Starman is majority owned by East Capital Explorer and with Cgates it will effectively create what is described as “the only truly pan-Baltic cable TV operator”. It will be interesting to see if in due course East Capital Explorer also turns its attention to Latvia, where Baltcom, the largest cable operator and since 2013 also owner of the second largest Izzi, is currently majority-backed by Rpax One.
The possibility of the Starman/Cgates deal being the shape of things to come in 2015 was arguably confirmed only days into the New Year when it was reported that Pinebridge, the majority owner of Romania’s Digital Cables System (DCS), which operates under the brand name AKTA, was looking to sell the operator.
More specifically, Pinebridge had been in talks with both UPC and Vodafone for the past six months but failed to reach an agreement with either party on the valuation of AKTA. While it was seeking €200 million, only around half that amount was being put on the table.
The important thing to note here is that this deal is far from dead and UPC, Vodafone or indeed another buyer could well find themselves the owner of one of Romania’s largest cable operators in the near future.
Vodafone is arguably the company to watch in 2015 and likely to pull off some eye-catching deals in the region. While the biggest would undoubtedly be acquiring Liberty Global’s assets, other, smaller operators are also undoubtedly in its sights.
The reality is that despite the presence of large players such as UPC, Digi and others, most cable markets in CEE are still badly in need of consolidation. This could be the year it finally gets under way in earnest.
