In the wake of news of the $8.5 billion sale of Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) to cable magnate John Malone's Liberty Global PLC (LG), CWC Vice President of Communications Denise Williams has assured that it's "business as usual" for the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC). And indeed, BTC CEO Leon Williams said, during BTC's first annual Christmas keynote, that it would likely be three months before the company could determine how the deal would affect BTC.
CWC's Williams told Guardian Business yesterday that the sale "is a carefully considered move to combine our high growth assets in Latin America and the Caribbean with the scale and complementary skills of a truly world-class global player, thereby significantly improving the company's ability to offer leading products and services to customers in the region".
As noted by Guardian Business last week, the proposed transaction is subject to certain shareholder and regulatory processes - including approval by The Bahamas' Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) - and is not expected to be complete until 2Q 2016.
Kathleen Riviere-Smith told Guardian Business that URCA "notes the proposed purchase of CWC by Liberty".
"In accordance with the Communications Act, any change of control of any URCA licensee would have to be approved by URCA. Given URCA's role in such matters, it would be inappropriate for URCA to offer any comment at this time," Smith said.
Denise Williams noted yesterday that - unlike the Columbus transaction, completed March 31, 2015, in which CWC acquired 100 percent of the equity of Columbus International Inc. for $1.85 billion, there is no overlap in any of the markets CWC serves, and until completion of the proposed transaction, it remains business as usual, with the same management team running the company.
"In terms of the impact of the announcement on BTC, we will continue with our plans of enhancing the customer experience and continue to deliver top-of-the-line products such as the recently launched Flow TV product. In essence, for now, it will be business as usual for us," she said.
The combined business of Liberty Global's Liberty Latin America and the Caribbean (LiLAC) group and Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) would have generated $3.5 billion in revenue in the 12-month period ending September 30, 2015, according to Liberty. Should its attempt to acquire Cable and Wireless succeed, Liberty Global says the resulting combination would be the leading consumer and B2B (business-to-business) communications provider in Latin America and the Caribbean, creating the "premier broadband and wireless platform with 10 million subscribers".
In addition, the merger offers Liberty attractive organic growth opportunities in broadband, pay TV and mobile data; Liberty Global expects to capitalize on the market-leading brands, superior fixed and mobile networks and product leadership of the new combination to take advantage of underlying untapped demand for broadband, pay TV and mobile products and drive customer take-up.
BTC CEO Leon Williams said he expected there would be many ways in which the company could benefit from the deal, although it is too early to say what those benefits might be.
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