(PrivateEquityCentral.net) France Telecom has reached an agreement to sell Casema, its Dutch cable business, to private equity firms The Carlyle Group, Providence Equity Partners and London-based GMT Communications for €700m.
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The terms of the deal were not disclosed, according to Dow Jones. Banks including Credit Lyonnais, Société Générale and BNP Paribas are providing the debt financing for the sale.
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Casema is the Netherlands’ third largest cable television business. The business, which has approximately 5.5m subscribers, was acquired by France Telecom in December 1997 for approximately €794m. Prior to that, Casema was owned by KPN.
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The deal comes approximately two weeks after Liberty Media Corp.’s proposed buyout of the business was scotched due to regulatory concerns. France Telecom, struggling under a €70bn debt load, has been looking to sell non-core assets to raise capital. Last month, France Telecom sold its stake in Greek mobile telecommunication company Vodafone-Panafon to Vodafone International for €311m.Â
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This is not the first transaction Carlyle and Providence Equity have teamed up on. In November 2000, the firms led a $200m second round of financing in DigiPlex, a Zurich, Switzerland-based provider of facilities to internet companies.