New market structure assisted Vodafone-Ziggo venture
November 14, 2019 11.25 Europe/London By Julian Clover, Cable Congress, Berlin
The 2016 merger between Ziggo and Vodafone would have been unthinkable 10 years ago, according to Liberty Global’s chief corporate affairs officer.
Manuel Kohnstamm told a finance session at Cable Congress in Berlin that the Dutch 50/50 joint venture, authorised by the European Commission, allowed “two very strong companies that hold each other in check”.
Between them Liberty and Vodafone now hold over 50% of European cable interests, Vodafone’s position being helped in part by the sale of a number of Liberty assets.
Kohnstamm said the Vodafone-Ziggo venture had created an “accepted structure” for any other market. Looking at the UK market where Liberty Global is expected to launch fibre deployments through a new company during the course of next year, Kohnstamm added “we see a significant opportunity”.
Kohnstamm’s stance was backed by Sir Philip Lowe the former EU Director-General for Competition, who’s now a partner in economics consultancy Oxera. Sir Philip told delegates there were opportunities in both the UK and Germany, because of their light touch regulation on fibre builds “It’s a different type of investor because they have a long term approach of anything up to a decade,” he said.
However, Belgium is lacking in interest because it remains heavily regulated.