PRINT THIS PAGE Cinven and Altice buy French telecom assets for €528m22/12/2004. Source: AltAssets. 
 Pan-European buy-out firm Cinven and Luxembourg-based cable firm Altice have bought the cable operating subsidiaries of France Telecom and Vivendi Universal for €528m. The deal will make the second biggest cable TV company in France.
Cinven will hold a majority stake of 50.01 per cent of the firm, with Altice holding 10 per cent and France Telecm and Canal+ each holding 19.99 per cent.
Nicolas Paulmier, a Cinven partner, said, 'The group will have significant growth potential. Today cable offers the highest bandwidth in the market. We have a huge opportunity here to address the future development of the cable market and meet the needs of customers.'
Cinven is expected to return to the market to raise a successor to its €4.4bn 2002 fund at some point in the next 12 months.
The acquisition marks Cinven's fourth for the year. Earlier this month it bought an 11 per cent share of satellite business Eutelsat. It has bought out German fashion retailer CBR in October and joined forces with Apax to buy-out Benelux directories firm VNU in September. It has also bought a share in Dutch retailer Vendex from lead investor KKR.
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