BRE Bank, Tel-Energo look to ways to play major role on cable TV market

BRE Bank and Tel-Energo may soon play a key role in the consolidation of the cable television market. The bank may merge several companies in which it has a stake, with a view to selling them later. Tel-Energo is looking for partners to form a telecommunications group. The cable TV market has over 500 companies, however the top three operators, UPC TK, TVK Vectra and Multimedia Polska, have a 35% share of the market. In 2001 TVK Vectra registered the most dynamically increasing number of subscribers. At a cost of zl. 60 million, the number of TVK Vectra's subscribers rose last year by over 100,000. This would not be have been possible without the help of its financial investor BRE Bank, which purchased a 26% stake in the company for over zl. 120 million. According to unofficial information, through granting loans, BRE also has an influence on the policy of another operator, Multimedia Polska. However, Multimedia's president Marek Szeliga denies such claims. "We are in no way related to BRE," he said. Recently, after the acquisition of a partial controlling stake in Elektrim, BRE has also acquired some influence on another operator, Aster City. "If BRE successfully manages to consolidate these three operators we would have a company with over 1 million subscribers. It would become a very serious player as well as a competitor for UPC," said a market analyst. (Puls Biznesu, p.7) A.Z.