Liberty Global increases majority stake in Telenet to 93.23%

International broadband and media group Liberty Global has revealed it has increased its ownership take of Belgium’s Telenet to 93.23%.

As a result, Liberty Global which is a majority owner of the Belgian telco company will own a total of 101,018,038 shares of Telenet as from the payment date of July 26 2023

Liberty Global waives the condition of owning, together with Telenet, at least 95% of the outstanding shares in Telenet. Since Liberty Global , together with Telenet, will own more than 90% of all Telenet shares following the transfer of such shares on the Payment Date, the Offer will be mandatorily reopened on August 24.

Liberty Global published the prospectus for its planned acquisition of the shares in Telenet that it does not already own last month. The company CEO Mike Fries previously said that he believes acquiring the whole of Telenet makes sense because it would be easier to build value as a private company.

This subsequent acceptance period will close on September 13, which will give shareholders who have not yet accepted the offer be able to accept the offer in this period.

The results of the acceptance period is expected to be announced on or after September 20, with payment of the shares tendered during the acceptance period to be shortly after.

The media giant which also co-owns Virgin Media O2 in the UK, VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands and Sunrise in Switzerlandand, recently voted in favour of changing the company’s jurisdiction of incorporation from England and Wales to Bermuda..

The percentage of votes in favour of the move ranged from 88-95% of votes cast across each of the company’s three classes of stock.

The next steps for Liberty involve a set of legal and regulatory procedures that will include court hearings in England. The move is not expected to be completed until November of this year.