NTL
NTL, Britain's largest cable operator, yesterday sold its television transmission business to an Australian-led consortium in a £1.3bn deal. Simon Duffy, the chief executive of NTL, said the disposal's tax implications had to be ironed out before the US-listed group decides what to do with the proceeds. Paying down a £3bn debt burden or distributing the cash to shareholders via a special dividend are among the options under consideration, he added. |
"Certainly reducing debt is an option, doing some form of getting the proceeds back to shareholders - a special dividend or something else - is an option. It's a UK asset we have sold and our shareholders are mostly in the US ... You can imagine it's a complex set of tax and legal issues that need to be evaluated."
NTL's broadcast business, which accounts for 12% of group revenues, distributes analogue TV signals for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five via a network of masts that reach 22m homes around the country.
Mobile phone operators and the fire and ambulance services also use the 1,500 masts, which include the UK's tallest free-standing structure - on Emley Moor in west Yorkshire.
The unit has been bought by a consortium led by Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group, which also bought a similar business from NTL in Australia two years ago. NTL Broadcast's 1,300 staff will switch over to MCIG following the sale.
Mr Duffy said NTL was now able to focus on its core business of selling broadband internet, TV and telephone services to UK homes.
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