American television distributor, Liberty Media International (LMI) has sold its stakes in Belgium cable company Telenet and Irish cable company Chorus Communications to its UnitedGlobalCom Inc subsidiary.
Telenet, Belgium’s largest cable operator with about 2.5 million subscribers, was sold for approximately $143 million, of which $121 million was paid to LMI. UnitedGlobalCom Newco now owns 78.4% of the common stock of Telenet. UnitedGlobalCom obtained LMI’s 100% ownership of Chorus Communications Ltd for 6.4 million shares of UnitedGlobalCom Class A common stock, which was valued at about $55 million. They also acquired more than 200,000 subscribers from the Irish cable company.
Julie Ballantine, Liberty Media spokeswomen said the move “made more sense” for LMI’s European assets to be under the UnitedGlobalCom umbrella.
The sale comes while sister company Liberty Media Corp is expediting a stock swap with its competitor News Corp, which would boost Liberty shareholder control in the US company to 18%. The stock swap with News Corp will see Liberty exchange 86.9 Class A preferred shares for 92 million Class B voting shares. The move was expected to take place next month, but Liberty officials said the transaction would close in January.
Liberty said that there was no “underlying reason” for the early swap, despite coming amidst speculation of a growing rift between company owners, John Malone and Rupert Murdoch, as Malone looks to boost his stake in Murdoch’s News Corp(see News Corp to Buy Liberty Media Shares)
Ballantine commented: “We’re obviously still on speaking terms, and everything is fine with the relationship.” She added: “We made it clear in no uncertain terms that the swap should not be perceived as anything hostile.”
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