Melita Cable aims to enter mobile market

Melita Cable, owned by GMT Communications Partners, announced yesterday that it has signed an agreement with Malta’s third UMTS mobile licensee 3G Telecommunications, enabling it to roll out the island’s third mobile network and offer voice and data services. Under the deal, venture capital firm M/C Venture Partners will acquire a minority interest in Melita Cable and fund the company’s expansion alongside GMT Communications Partners and the Gasan Group. Malta’s telecoms regulator the MCA has given preliminary approval for the transaction; completion remains subject to final clearance by the MCA and the Office of Fair Competition. Commenting on the new agreement, Massimo Prelz of GMT Communications Partners said that ‘the addition of 3G Telecommunications will enable Melita Cable to become one of the cable industry’s first fully integrated quadruple-play operators’, whilst Joseph Gasan, chairman of Melita Cable, said: ‘Our investment in an advanced mobile communications network is another step forward for Malta’s communications market which represents an important building block for our economy.’ GMT Communications Partners is a European independent private equity group focused exclusively on the communications sector, with a 15-year European investment track record. M/C Venture Partners focuses its investments on the communications, media and information technology sectors, and has invested over USD1.8 billion in around 80 ‘emerging growth companies’ over the past 25 years.