Cable and Wireless to Buy Latin American Telecommunications Provider

Photo

LONDON – Cable and Wireless Communications said on Thursday that it had agreed to acquire Columbus International, a telecommunications provider in Latin America and the Caribbean, for $1.85 billion, while also assuming debt.

Cable and Wireless, whose shares are listed in London but which has most of its operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, will pay $707.5 million in cash and issue new shares in the combined company. It will also assume about $1.17 billion in debt.

Columbus International, a privately held company based in Barbados, provides bundled cable television and broadband services to about 700,000 residential customers in the Caribbean, Central America and parts of South America, as well as information technology services to businesses. It posted revenue of $505 million in 2013.

“This is a significant opportunity to better serve our customers” and improve the infrastructure “of the communities in which we operate, whilst accelerating our strategy and delivering materially enhanced returns and synergy benefits,” Phil Bentley, the chief executive of Cable and Wireless, said in a news release.

After the deal, the sellers of Columbus International will own about 36 percent of the combined company.

The sellers include entities controlled by John Risley, a Columbus co-founder, and entities controlled by John C. Malone, the chairman of the media company Liberty Global. Brendan Paddick, a Columbus co-founder and chief executive, is also among the sellers.

Cable and Wireless provides telephone, broadband and television services to about 5.7 million residential customers in 17 countries in the Caribbean, Latin America and the Seychelles, and also provides business and government telecommunications services. It posted revenue of $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2013-2014.

Shares of Cable and Wireless declined 6 percent, to 45.9 pence, in afternoon trading in London on Thursday.