John Malone’s Liberty Global (LGI) has boosted its stake in Dutch cableco Ziggo from 18.2% to 28.5%.
LGI said in a SEC filing that a wholly-owned subsidiary entered into a hedging transaction on 25 July, which saw it acquire 17.5 million extra Ziggo…
John Malone’s Liberty Global (LGI) has boosted its stake in Dutch cableco Ziggo from 18.2% to 28.5%.
LGI said in a SEC filing that a wholly-owned subsidiary entered into a hedging transaction on 25 July, which saw it acquire 17.5 million extra Ziggo shares. The acquisition was financed entirely through a loan linked to the transaction.
At the time of writing, Ziggo shares were trading on the NYSE Euronext at €28.83, up 3.19% on the previous day’s market closing price. At this price, the 17.5 million shares are valued at €504.5m (US$668.6m).
Utrecht-based Ziggo acknowledged the acquisition in its own statement, saying its supervisory and management boards “will continue to act in the best interests of its stakeholders in assessing steps made by Liberty Global while continuing to focus on executing Ziggo’s strategy”.
A Ziggo spokesperson said the company has nothing to add to the statement at present.
LGI, which owns Ziggo rival UPC Netherlands, initially bought a 12.65% stake from Barclays for €632.5m, or €25 per share, in late March.
In late April, LGI upped its stake to 15%, describing it at the time as “an attractive opportunity to make a strategic investment in a market where it already enjoys a sizeable presence”.
Should LGI decide to increase its stake to 30%, it will be required under Dutch law to make a full takeover bid for the company.
LGI completed its takeover of UK cableco Virgin Media in early June for US$23.3bn and now has its official domicile in the UK.
The company also made a prelim bid of about €85 per share for Germany’s Kabel Deutschland (KDG) in June, but later conceded defeat to Vodafone, which offered €87 per share for the cableco.
