Liberty Global To Sell Austrian Operations To T-Mobile Austria For EUR 1.9 Bln

(RTTNews) - Liberty Global plc (LBTYA, LBTYB and LBTYK) announced an agreement to sell its Austrian operations, UPC Austria, to T-Mobile Austria for a total enterprise value of approximately EUR 1.9 billion, subject to customary debt and working capital adjustments at completion.

The sale price represents a multiple of nearly 11x UPC Austria's estimated 2017 adjusted segment operating cash flow, or approximately 34x UPC Austria's estimated 2017 operating free cash flow.

At September 30, 2017, UPC Austria's network passed 1.4 million homes and served 654,000 customers who subscribed to 513,000 broadband, 450,000 voice and 468,000 video services.

Liberty Global expects transaction to close in the second half of 2018. The company expects to use proceeds from this sale for general corporate purposes, including leverage reduction for the remaining UPC bank group, re-investment into business, and support for share repurchase program.

In addition, Liberty Global has agreed to provide certain transitional services for a period of up to four years and also allow T-Mobile Austria to use the UPC brand for a transitional period of up to three years.