Cable television firm Ziggo set for Amsterdam stock exchange listing

Cable television firm Ziggo said on Wednesday it planned to list on the Amsterdam stock exchange, but a date has not yet been set.


Ziggo, currently owned by private equity firms, is the biggest cable television firm in the country with some three million subscribers. It was formed between 2005 and 2007 through the merger of Casema, Multikabel and Essent Kabelcom.
€1bn
Sources told the Financieele Dagblad owners Warburg Pincus and Cinven are expecting to raise around €1bn from the sale. The company’s total value is put at between €7bn and €8bn, including debt of €3.2bn, the paper said.
Chief executive Bernard Dijkhuizen said in a statement an IPO is the ‘next logical step’, considering recent investments in both the cable network and developing new products such as broadband and telephony.
There had been speculation Liberty Global, owner of Dutch cable firm UPC, would mount a takeover bid for Ziggo.
Programming
Ziggo came under fire last year for reducing its basic analogue television package from 30 to 25 broadcasters, without a cut in price. The company hoped the move would encourage viewers to switch to digital television.
The cuts mean, for example, that analogue television viewers in The Hague are no longer able to watch BBC2 or BBC World.

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