Liberty’s Telenet buys Base for $1.4bn

Liberty Global’s Belgian subsidiary Telenet is to buy Base, the country’s third-largest mobile operator, for €1.3bn (US$1.4bn).

Mike Fries

The cash buyout from Dutch telecom firm KPN will expand Telenet’s mobile and fixed-line business in Belgium.

The deal also means Telenet, which is 57%-owned by US-based Liberty, will no longer need to rent capacity from Belgium’s second largest mobile network Mobistar.

Telenet has almost one million mobile subscribers while Base has notched up around 3.3 million, as well as a service revenue market share of 21% at the end of 2014.

“We fully support Telenet’s acquisition of Base, which represents a cost-effective and unique opportunity to expand Telenet’s mobile and fixed business in Belgium,” said Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries.

“Given Telenet’s scale in Belgium, it can absorb the smaller Base business quickly and efficiently. Elsewhere in Europe we will continue to focus primarily on our existing MVNO arrangements and rapidly developing wifi networks to provide seamless mobile voice and data services to our customers.”

Liberty said it will spend a further €240m on integrating the two businesses, while Telenet will fund the deal via €1bn of refinancing and existing liquidity.

Earlier this month KPN said it was exploring “all of its options” for Base, its Brussels-based subsidiary. The company said it would use the money from the sale to create maximum value for shareholders.

Liberty has been reported as a potential buyer of UK broadcaster ITV and Irish commercial channel TV3 in recent weeks.

The firm, which owns Virgin Media in the UK, recently completed the acquisition of Dutch cable operator Ziggo and sold its Film1 group of movie channels in the Netherlands to Sony Pictures Television Networks.