Commission Clears Casema, Multikabel Acquisition

BRUSSELS, September 8: The European Commission has approved
the acquisition of Dutch cable platforms Casema and Multikabel by private
equity firms Cinven and Warburg Pincus.

The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would
not “significantly impede effective competition” in the region. “The Commission
has found that Casema and Multikabel have only marginal overlapping activities
in the markets for broadband Internet access, retail distribution of fixed
telephony services, leased lines and in the emerging market for multiple play
offers that are not liable to raise any competition concerns.”

Casema is the third-largest cable operator in the
Netherlands, 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. Multikabel,
headquartered in Alkmaar, is the fourth-largest cable operator in the Netherlands.
The company provides triple play services, including video, broadband Internet
and telephony, to 315,000 subscribers in 38 municipalities across the province
of Noord-Holland.