Taking on the Internet market, multiple acquisitions and intense negotiations to take over one of its two main rivals - these are all elements in the aggressive policy adopted by cable TV operator UPC Romania, last year in a bid to gain a solid foothold on the Romanian market.
UPC Romania, which is owned by US corporation UnitedGlobalCom, announced on Tuesday it had finalised the acquisition of cable TV operator Conex Sat Roman, adding 29,000 new customers to its existing base of 357,000 in the process.
The value of the acquisition has not been officially disclosed, but sources close to the deal quoted by Mediafax put it at around five million euros.
The acquisition comes after last year UPC Romania purchased two other CATV operators in Bacau.
UPC is ranked third on the cable television market. The first two places belong to RCS/RDS and Astral Telecom, though the hierarchy is likely to change this year.
UPC is currently in advanced talks with Astral shareholders to buy out the operator, with a final decision being expected, say certain sources, in the coming months.
The domestic market for cable and integrated services (cable television, Internet access and telephone services) is marked by a tendency for consolidation as witnessed by the acquisitions of a number of medium to large companies. A recent example of this trend was the takeover of PCNet by RDS/RCS in a deal estimated by some experts at 10 million dollars (8 million euros).
This year also saw UPC Romania enter the Internet market, where it is planning to invest almost 2 million dollars this year.
Initially the company will launch Internet services in the cities of Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Ploiesti. According to UPC officials, their services will boast the highest speed among cable TV operators in Romania. The company has been present on the domestic market for 13 years, during which time it has invested over 70 million dollars (56.4 million euros) in the expansion of its own network and the acquisition of other domestic players.
"We have medium-term plans for Romania. In 2005 we plan to invest over 8 million dollars (6.15 million euros)," said Dragos Tanase, UPC''s financial officer, earlier this year.
victor@zf.ro
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