NTL For Sale?

ebsa

The owners of cable firm NTL are to sell its Irish division in a deal that could be worth €150-€200 million, writes Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter. The sale should be concluded by April and at least one Irish consortium is in the running to buy it.

International investment bank Goldman Sachs is advising NTL on the sale and has invited several prospective Irish and international bidders to consider the company.

NTL Ireland is the State's biggest cable supplier with more than 340,000 customers in Dublin, Galway and Waterford. Its US owner, NTL Group, was rescued from bankruptcy last year by a consortium of banks and hedge funds.

The Irish Times has learned that a consortium of wealthy Irish investors is preparing a bid and has approached NTL. The group is being advised by financial advisers IBI Corporate Finance.

International cable firm UGC Europe Communications, owned by US media figure Mr John Malone, is also believed to be preparing a bid. Last month it bought NTL's Irish rival, Chorus Communications.

A spokesman for UGC said yesterday that as the largest European cable firm it would look at opportunities as they arose.

He said the firm did not comment on specific cases.

NTL Ireland is likely to be sold for a fraction of the €680 million purchase price that NTL paid for the company back in 1999 during the hype of the dotcom bubble.

UGC paid a multiple of approximately 6.9 times estimated 2004 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for Chorus. Using a similar formula it is estimated that NTL could sell for up to €200 million.

But any prospective buyers of NTL Ireland are likely to have to invest tens of millions of euro to upgrade its network to supply broadband internet technology.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2005/0113/1963004560HM1NTL.html

Kristok

Great news imo, maby now they will get the investment to expand they broadband deployment further.

Maby they will be re bought by cablelink, that would be funny.

Slutmonkey57b

Wealthy Irish investors.

Think "Tony O'Reilly" and "eircom" if you want to know what Irish investors will do with NTL.

seamus

Slutmonkey57b wrote:

Think "Tony O'Reilly" and "eircom" if you want to know what Irish investors will do with NTL.

Yeah

My God, that would be some kick in the teeth if Tony actually did buy it. There's one big American provider who touched down here recently (can't remember the name). They usually do high bandwidth backhaul, but if they got in the market, it would be great for the Irish consumer. In fact, if any investor that's not Irish takes it, it'll be good for the market.

icdg

If UGC bought the company that would almost certainly mean a merger with Chorus. Hopefully the resulting company would be more NTL than Chorus, but I would strongly fear the reverse...

I doubt O'Reilly will buy it. He's had a bad experience in the Irish cable TV market with Chorus and having just exited the scene I don't think will re-enter.

The Cablelink brand is still owned by the company (NTL Ireland) to the best of my knowledge, so a resurrection of that brand is not entirely out of the question.

mike65

This is being discussed from internet perpective on Broadband forum but what about the telly, which all NTL users have?

The most likely buyers at this point would seem to be the current managment
in a buy-out (me shudders). I guess Telewest could be interested but no-one already in the Irish market should be allowed to buy.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/13/ntl_sale_rumours/

Mike.

Mossy Monk

merging time

mike65

ooops!

Mike.

cdc

I don't understand. NTL are in the business of tv and internet supply.
Why have they no interest in doing what they do?

This is a bona fide NTL region, has been for years.
Why pull out of this one?
They want to concentrate on the UK. Why do they not want to concentrate on Ireland?

We have all seen thier ads and promotions. They are obviously very proud and keen about the services they provide here. So what's happened?

mike65

The Irish op is tiny in the context of thier total subscriber numbers, SKY continues to pose a threat as does Freeview in the UK. They just moved tech support to India and there are serious rumours of a tie up with rivals Telewest, I think NTL Ireland is for them an untidy distraction. Loads of investment is still required to match what SKY can offer in terms of useable services and the Broadband rollout is still s-l-o-w (is that 100 million still in place?).

Mike.

cdc

The threat of competition should not be a reason to quit. And the same competition exists in uk.
Mergers and moving support to India is no reason to stop doing what you exist to do.
Untidy distraction? How can a cable company be distracted by operating a cable company?

JDxtra

Probably because the network here is not in as good shape as their UK networks. A large chunk of it is probably still ex-RTE relays cable which is decades old (I know it is at my parents house).

Broadband is a big seller for them in the UK - yet most of their Irish network is not capable of providing this service.

I'm not surpised they are selling it to be honest. It needs a company with a load of dosh to buy it and start investing in the infastructure again.

eth0_

F*ck Irish investors. They won't know what they're doing and could make NTL even worse. I know they are definitely being sold, heard it from someone high up in NTL business.

I hope a company like Telewest buys it out, then you'd see some real positive changes in cable in Dublin.

I'm sure Chorus won't be allowed to buy NTL because then they would be the monopoly in Ireland and I don't think that is allowed?

icdg

Telewest and Chorus used to have a common shareholder in Liberty Media though I believe since Liberty Media transferred Chorus to UGC (UPC) and started selling its Telewest shares this may no longer hold much meaning. Nevertheless I would be surprised if Telewest got involved since they are supposed to be considering a merger with NTL anyway, acquiring NTL assets would be a waste of time.

If UGC gets involved, there will be a Competition Authority inquiry, however as NTL and Chorus do not directly compete (though there is no longer any legal impediment to them doing so) I don't see how a merger of the two can hurt competition. I would just hope that a merged company (UPC Ireland????)would be run from Dublin with the NTL mangagement team and not Chorus'.

I can certainly see some upheaval for NTL Digital subscribers - their platform is run off the NTL Langely system, using the same hardware, software and super-head-end. It may be that NTL may continue to provide these services to UPC (or whoever takes over), but they would eventually possibly need to move to a new platform.

celticfc

The Sunday Tribune reports Setanta may be putting a bid in for ntl: Ireland.

I didn't see the article, but noticed this on DS.

Would they have that kind of money though?

cdc

This still gets mention in the Times occasionally, yet I have not seen any statement from NTL about it.
There is a bit of an interview with Marky Mohan in business & finance this week just blabbering on a bit about the functioning of the company; no comments like 'don't ask me, I'll be out of a job soon, NTL is being sold'.
If the Irish concern is being sold it there is no need for secrecy and rumors.

In conclusion, NTL Ireland is not for sale!

ebsa

celticfc wrote:

The Sunday Tribune reports Setanta may be putting a bid in for ntl: Ireland.

I didn't see the article, but noticed this on DS.

Would they have that kind of money though?

Other people's money...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-1522591,00.html

PHILIP LYNCH’S IAWS Co-op has joined forces with Setanta, the Irish television broadcaster, and AIG, one of the world’s biggest insurers, in an attempt to acquire NTL’s Irish assets.

The consortium is believed to have offered in excess of €300m, the highest of the four shortlisted bids.

Goldman Sachs, NTL’s adviser on the bid, has indicated that the sale process should be completed by the end of the month. NTL is due to report its full-year results on Tuesday, with an update on the performance of its Irish operations likely.

JDxtra

cdc wrote:

In conclusion, NTL Ireland is not for sale!

Yes, it is.

I have spoken with some of their senior sales executives & they have confirmed that it is indeed for sale.

icdg

There most likely will not be any official announcement until the ink is dry on the agreement to sell, this is usally the case with a trade sale of a private company. Remember the Northern-NIB sale to Danske - NAB always offically denied the units were for sale until the day they were sold. But everyone knew they were, anyway.

It is the same with NTL Ireland. If the Irish Times, Irish Independent, and half the quality Sunday newspapers in the country say they are for sale, then it is reasonable to assume it is true...

Alison1

Has anyone thought what this would mean to the employees of NTL or Chorus if UGC were successful in their bid.

Elmo

In the Papers

DAVY ARM BACKING SETANTA NTL BID - The Irish Independent quotes industry sources as saying that the Setanta Sports consortium bidding for NTL Ireland is being backed by Davy Private Clients.

Davy Private Clients represents a number of wealthy Irish individuals, the paper says, adding that the consortium also involves international insurance giant AIG.

The Setanta bid for NTL was believed to be over €300m, but the Indo quotes sources as saying that they felt that this was an unrealistic price for the cable firm given its current value. The other two remaining bidders for NTL Ireland are cable firm UGC, which owns Chorus, and telecoms entrepreneur John Riordan (backed by Doughty Hanson).

JDxtra

Alison1 wrote:

Has anyone thought what this would mean to the employees of NTL or Chorus if UGC were successful in their bid.

Some staff will obviously lose their jobs if this happened. Harsh as it may sound, that's just business.

The company however would be in a much better position though to offer better products and services to the consumer. They could finally have some spare cash to deploy a superior cable network.

...and that's all the majority of consumers care about.