Kublai completes Tele Columbus takeover

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners’ investment vehicle Kublai GmbH has completed its takeover of German cable operator Tele Columbus following the EC granting regulatory approval a week ago.

With major shareholder United Internet contributing its stake, Kublai now holds a 91.96% stake in Tele Columbus. Kublai has said it will appoint new members of the company’s supervisory board shortly, enlarging the board’s size from six to eight members.

New members are expected to be appointed at the next scheduled shareholders’ meeting on May 28.

Kublai has proposed eight names for the board, including Kublai managing directors and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners execs Marc Van’t Noordende, Christoph Oppenhauer and Annelies van Zutphen, and United Internet’s CEO Ralph Dommermuth and CFO Martin Mildner.

Tele Columbus is also planning to increase its capital through a subscription rights offer to the tune of €745 million, with the rights issue guaranteed by Kublai.

The operator said that it would offer 146,109,887 new shares priced at €3.25.

Tele Columbus, which operates under the PŸUR brand, said that the capital increase would help achieve a sustainable capital structure and enable it to further its implementation of its Fiber Champion strategy.

Separately, Tele Columbus has announced that over seven in 10 of its new customers are signing up to 200Mbps or above broadband speeds, up from one in two new customers at the end of 2019. Entry-level packages with 20Mbps are taken by only 18% of new customers.

The company recently launched a promotional offer whereby new customers can sign up for 200Mbps internet plus TV and telephony with no payment for the first six months.