Vodafone in talks to buy Liberty cable networks

VODAFONE is in talks to buy a clutch of continental cable networks from Liberty Global, just over two years after talks between the pair collapsed.

Vodafone said discussions were at an “early stage” and related to it potentially buying “certain overlapping continental European assets” of the Nasdaq-listed group. The talks do not involve Liberty’s UK provider, Virgin Media or Vodafone’s domestic mobile operation. Their overlapping continental operations are Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic.

Germany is Vodafone’s largest European market. The group announced a €2bn (£1.8bn) investment last year into its broadband network there – part of its plans to combine European mobile networks with ultra-fast broadband. Liberty Global has a large German operation, under the Unitymedia brand, which generates around a fifth of its European revenue, equal to $704m (£500m) in the three months to Sept 30.

This month it emerged that Vodafone was looking to expand its Hungarian operations, by offering retail fixed-line services, and it has recently been growing its customer base in Romania and the Czech Republic.

Should a deal be agreed, it could mark a breakthrough after years of talks. A joint venture was agreed in 2016 for their Dutch operations, but this followed earlier expectations that the businesses would merge.

Vodafone said it was “not in discussion with Liberty Global regarding a combination of both companies”.