UPC mulls acquisitions

Despite withdrawing from acquiring cable operator Multimedia, UPC Polska is still interested in acquisitions in Poland, company’s CEO Robert Redeleanu confirmed. “We still see opportunities on the market, we will have to re-evaluate them. Our biggest challenge is to maintain organic growth,” he said. UPC had to withdraw from the PLN 3 billion potential deal with Multimedia as it failed to secure antitrust watchdog UOKiK approval, which said that it could lead to a significant strengthening of the UPC position and restriction of competition in 15 cities. Both companies worked on a revised deal but failed to reach an agreement. The PLN 3 billion deal, announced back in October was subject to potential downward adjustments due to Multimedia’s lower-than-expected financial and operational performance. “We remain UPC is the biggest cable operator in Poland, at end-March it had 1.43 million customers to whom it provided nearly 3 million services. Redeleanu added that the local telecommunications market will grow in the following years mainly due to the increase in media consumption (pay TV, video on demand), higher demand for high-speed network and packetization of services by telecommunications operators. The CEO confirmed that the company intends to launch mobile telephony services at the beginning of 2019.