MBK, Macquarie start share sale in Korean cable TV firm

DetailsRebecca Hawkes | 13 January 2015




MBK Partners LP and Macquarie Group are selling their stake in South Korean cable TV operator C&M Co, with bids expected to reach somewhere between US$2.5 billion and $3 billion.


Approaches by the Asian private equity company and the Australian bank have been made to South Korea's other cable TV companies to encourage them to bid for C&M, the country's fifth largest cable TV operator in terms of subscriber numbers, Reuters reports.

Consolidation by some of Korea's smaller pay-TV operators and access to C&M's strong Seoul subscriber base would increase the competition for market leader KT Corp. In 2008 MBK and Macquarie jointly acquired over 90% of C&M for around KRW2.1 trillion ($1.94 billion). Goldman Sachs is now advising MBK and Macquarie on the equity sale.

C&M reported earnings of KRW310 billion won (US$286 million) on revenues of KRW660 billion in 2013. As of September 2014 the multi-system operator (MSO) had 2.4 million subscribers across 17 cable TV networks in the Seoul and Gyeonggi regions