Breakthrough for Telewest-NTL deal
THE £5.5bn merger between cable giants NTL and Telewest is about to take a major step forward with the appointment of two further advisers, completing the team.
NTL, led by Simon Duffy, below, has long been associated with Goldman Sachs, but Telewest was rumoured to have been interviewing banks in the past few weeks.
Deutsche Bank has now been hired as its main adviser and Rothschild in America is likely to provide an independent opinion on the deal, though no contract has yet been signed.
A merger between NTL and Telewest has long been predicted. Both are listed in the US, but have customers spread across Britain and Ireland.
NTL has £2.1bn in annual revenues while Telewest has £1.3bn, but both are debt-laden. A combined company is seen as a way to create a major cable brand able to challenge the dominance of Sky and BT.
The move would be approved by important backers, including William Huff, a New York-based investor and major shareholder in both companies. He has has signalled that he wants a deal to be done.
Deutsche was an obvious choice for adviser on the deal as it is understood to have carried out work for Huff in the past. It has also been linked as adviser to Telewest on the potential sale of Flextech, Telewest's content division.
Rothschild is among a dwindling number of boutique banks concentrating on providing advice rather than finance. Lazard is also thought to have been interviewed.
