Tele Columbus buys German cable rival Pepcom for €608 million

Germany’s third largest cable operator, Tele Columbus, has agreed to buy the number-four player Pepcom for €608 million, in its latest consolidation effort in its home market.

Tele Columbus is buying Pepcom from Star Capital in a deal that will give Telecolumbus a footprint of 3.7 million connected homes and expand its presence in Pepcom’s key locations of Munich, Nuremberg, Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main.

Tele Columbus said the deal offers “significant potential for accelerated growth in internet, telephony and premium TV services across the combined customer base.”

The acquisition comes after Tele Columbus agreed to acquire another Germany operator, PrimaCom, for €711 million in July.

Pepcom offers cable TV, high-speed internet and phone services and claims 580,000 unique subscribers out of approximately 810,000 homes connected.

Last year, the company generated total revenues of €126 million and normalised EBITDA of €57 million, with the purchase price representing a multiple of 9.5t imes pre-synergies, and 7.9 times post-synergies, based on Pepcom’s expected adjusted EBITDA 2015.

Pepcom currently employs approximately 370 people and has its corporate headquarters in Unterfoehring, near Munich.

“The combination of the third and fourth largest cable operators in Germany creates significant tangible synergy opportunities due to scale effects and sharing of best practices and expertise. As a result, annual run-rate cost synergies of €13 million and capex synergies of €2 million are expected to be fully realised within 24 months of closing,” said Tele Columbus.

The deal was agreed for €608 million on a cash- and debt-free basis, though after taking net debt into consideration net debt, debt-like items and the 30% minority participation in KMS, the purchase price payable comes to roughly €505 million.

Pepcom has a 70% controlling stake in Bavarian TV and broadband cable company KMS, with Vodafone Kabel Deutschland holding the remaining 30%.

The deal is expected to closing by the end of 2015, or by April 30, 2016, at the latest.