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Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Who will buy ASTRAL?

A lot of comments and speculations these days about the cable company ASTRAL Romania. The company could be sold to a foreign investor and this possible sell has generated a lot of speculations lately.

The most important companies interested in buying Astral are: Hicks Muse Tate & Furst from USA (HMTF), AIG - Emerging Europe Infrastructure Fund (AIG-EEIF), Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity and Polish Entreprise Fund. Also, a very important player might be United Pan-European Communications (UPC), a cable company that is present also in Romania.

According to the market analists, the greatest chances are for UPC to buy ASTRAL. UPC has over 10 milion clients world-wide and has a good presence in Eastern-Europe. In Romania, UPC has a market share of about 10%.

Still, the other interested funds are large companies world-wide and might be able to make a better offer than UPC.

The total value of Astral might be around 230 milion EURO. Astral forecasts a revenue of about 70 milion EURO for Astral for 2004 and a profit of about 30 milion EURO. Astral has a current market share of about 24%, while the other large competitor on the market, RDS / RCS has a market share of about 29%.

Posted by Mihai : 11/10/2004 01:14:00 pm