Tele Columbus selects banks for IPO?

German regional cable operator Tele Columbus has reportedly selected Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan for an initial public offering (IPO) later this year, according to Reuters, citing people familiar with the plan. In 2009 the company was sold to its creditors, including York Capital, Alcentra, GoldenTree Asset Management and the Bank of Ireland, as part of a financial restructuring. After a move by Kabel Deutschland to acquire the cableco for EUR618 million (USD838 million) was blocked by the Federal Cartel Office in February 2013, several financial investors, including private equity firms Cinven Group and CVC Capital Partners, were reported to be in talks to buy Tele Columbus, but no deal has been forthcoming. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that Tele Columbus provides cable TV, broadband internet access and voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) telephony services to around 1.7 million connected households in its core eastern areas of Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, as well as parts of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.