Following its acquisition of PrimaCom in July, Germany’s third largest cable network operator Tele Columbus has entered into an agreement to acquire fourth-placed player pepcom from Star Capital for EUR608 million (USD690 million) on a cash and debt free basis. Tele Columbus says the move reinforces its position as one of the leading German cable players, bringing together approximately 3.7 million homes connected on one platform, with complementary geographic expansion to pepcom’s key locations of Munich, Nuremberg, Leipzig and Frankfurt.
pepcom, which offers services on a nationwide basis, provides cable TV, high speed internet and telephony access, and has over 580,000 unique subscribers out of approximately 810,000 homes connected. The company also holds a 70% stake in Bavarian TV and broadband cable company KMS (together with Vodafone Kabel Deutschland, which owns the remaining 30%) and in 2012 it acquired HL komm, a Leipzig-based provider of telecoms services for business customers.
Tele Columbus and pepcom say that 57% and 58% of connected homes are currently two-way capable. Tele Columbus’ strategy is to continue to grow the percentage of households that are two-way upgraded and connected to its own network. The closing of the transaction is expected by the end of 2015, or 30 April 2016 at latest.