KDG welcomes consolidation in cable market

German cable operator Kabel Deutschland (KDG) has welcomed the planned takeover of rival Kabel BW by Liberty Global’s local cable subsidiary Unitymedia, stating that such a move would strengthen infrastructure competition in the market. German newspaper Handelsblatt cites KDG’s CEO Adrian von Hammerstein as saying that consolidation would help cable companies to compete on more equal terms with the country’s incumbent fixed line operator Deutsche Telekom. US cable company Liberty Global emerged as the highest bidder to acquire Kabel BW from Swedish investment firm EQT in March 2011, beating bids from CVC and Hallman & Friedman with an offer of EUR3.16 billion (USD4.5 billion). In June 2011 the European Commission (EC) agreed to transfer jurisdiction over the investigation into the planned acquisition to Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO), which is not expected to make a decision on the deal until November at the earliest.