France-focused cableco Numericable is gearing up towards a listing this autumn and the company has scheduled a preparatory meeting on 19 September, media reported.
According to French TV channel BFM TV, financial analysts have been invited to the…
France-focused cableco Numericable is gearing up towards a listing this autumn and the company has scheduled a preparatory meeting on 19 September, media reported.
According to French TV channel BFM TV, financial analysts have been invited to the meeting on Thursday to discuss the IPO, which could value the company at up to €6bn (US$8bn).
The offering itself, led by Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, is expected take place around mid-November.
Earlier, it had been suggested that Numericable’s private equity owners Cinven, Carlyle and businessman Patrick Drahi’s Altice Group were valuing the cable operator at between €4bn (US$5.3bn) and €5bn (US$6.7bn).
But following the recent approval from lenders to merge Numericable with sister telco Completel, this figure could raise to up to €6bn. Based on Numericable and Completel 2012 earnings of €456m and €181m respectively, the €6bn estimate represents approximately 9x EBITDA.
Numericable reportedly has debt of €2.3bn while Completel’s liabilities are estimated at €450m.
Cinven and Altice jointly acquired Numericable, which also operates in Belgium and Luxembourg, in 2006. A year later they snapped up French enterprise-focused telco Completel. Carlyle bought into the businesses in 2008 by investing €1.1bn.
Other options have been explored for the cableco over the last few months. In late February, it was suggested that Numericable was preparing a cash offer for Vivendi’s telecoms unit SFR with the view to a possible future merger. But SFR chairman Stephane Roussel said at the time that an IPO of the mobile operator, rather than a merger with Numericable, was in the pipeline.
Rival carrier Bouygues has also been tipped as a potential acquirer of Numericable.
The cable operator and Cinven declined to comment on the BFM TV report while Altice and Carlyle were not immediately available for comment.
The European cable industry has seen increased deal activity this year, including US cableco Liberty Global’s acquisition of UK-based counterpart Virgin Media for around US$23.3bn. Meanwhile Vodafone recently received shareholder approval to buy Germany’s KDG. And last year, Dutch cable company Ziggo was floated in a €925m transaction.
