Cinven, Warburg Pincus to Acquire Casema

PARIS/LONDON, July 18: Dutch cable platform Casema is to be
acquired by private equity firms Cinven and Warburg Pincus for 2.1 billion
euros in a deal with the Carlyle Group, Providence Equity Partners and GMT
Communications Partners.

Casema provides cable, Internet and telephony services to
residential and business customers in the Netherlands. The Company is the
third-largest cable operator in the country, passing 1.5 million homes. Its
customer base of 1.3 million TV subscribers represents approximately 21 percent
of all Dutch households. It also has 400,000 broadband Internet subs and
136,000 telephony customers.

Carlyle, Providence and GMT acquired Casema in 2003 from
France Telecom. Carlyle and Providence each own 46 percent, and GMT has an
8-percent stake.

The transaction, which is expected to close in the second
half of 2006, is subject to regulatory approval.