Polsat looks at purchase of Vivendi assets

The Polsat Group is interested in the Polish assets of Vivendi Universal and the group's owner, Zygmunt Solorz, has held preliminary talks with Vivendi concerning this issue. "We are interested in the consolidation of cable networks and digital platforms as well as in merging telecommunications with the media," he said. Polsat would enter a consortium which intends to purchase a 51% stake in Elektrim Telekomunikacja (ET). "If members of the consortium reach a consensus, we will be interested in its expansion," said Solorz. So far Eastbridge, BRE Bank and Citigroup have declared interest in the consortium's extension. The consortium has been set up in order to purchase from Vivendi and Elektrim a 100% stake of ET which would later be sold to Deutsche Telecom. According to Solorz, the consortium could be extended by Elektrim itself, which holds a 49% stake in ET and needs some cash to pay its liabilities to bond holders. ET also owns Warsaw-based cable television operator Aster City. (Puls Biznesu, p. 11) A.Z.