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Carlyle defeats strategics to win Telecable auction

by Jonathan Braude | Published October 18, 2011 at 4:50 PM

Carlyle Group agreed Tuesday, Oct. 18, to acquire 85% of Spanish cable and telecom company TeleCable de Asturias S.A.U. for an enterprise value of €400 million ($550 million) as the Washington buyout firm brandished its experience as a telecom investor to defeat rival strategic bidders.

The current 92% shareholder, Spanish savings bank Liberbank SA, will retain 15%, while media company Editorial Prensa Ibérica SA will sell its 8% holding.

Liberbank earlier this year took over the assets of the company's former savings bank owner, Caja de Ahorros de Asturias, as part of an ongoing consolidation of the Spanish financial sector. It has been under pressure to dispose of the business quickly.

In a statement, a spokesman for the bank said the sale to Carlyle brought in a new shareholder of international importance, which would permit TeleCable to achieve its great development potential.

Carlyle said it will support TeleCable's growth and will help the company to continue the introduction of innovative communication technologies in the Spanish market.

TeleCable is a telecommunications and cable TV provider with 156,000 fixed and mobile voice and Internet users; revenue was more than €121 million in 2010. The company, founded in 1995, is based in Oviedo. It was the first Spanish operator to broadcast high-definition television channels.

Carlyle, which bested several other bidders, including Cableuropa S.A.U., which trades as Ono, the biggest cable operator in Spain, and R Cable y Telecomunicaciones Galicia SA, a regional cable operator owned by CVC Capital Partners, pointed to its own experience in the telecom sector. Its investments in the sector have included Com Hem AB, a Swedish cable operator that also has interests in the Netherlands.

Carlyle said it would fund the equity in the deal from its €5.3 billion 2006 fund, Carlyle Europe Partners III.

TeleCable is Carlyle's fourth portfolio company in Spain. The others are Applus++ Group, an inspection, testing, certification and quality control company; Orizonia Corp., a leading tourism group; and Arsys Internet SL, a managed hosting, Internet services and IT company.

Liberbank was advised by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Société Générale SA.

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Carlyle defeats strategics to win Telecable auction

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