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Compere may bid for DT cable
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February 18, 2002: 6:46 a.m. ET
UK private equity firm may bid for Telekom's cable assets if Liberty gives up on bid
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LONDON (CNN) - Deutsche Telecom may be forced to seek a new buyer for its cable business after Liberty Media said it would not improve its offer.
John Malone's Liberty Merdia (L: down $0.73 to $12.70, Research, Estimates) has offered  5.5 billion ($4.8 billion) for Deutsche Telekom's six cable television networks, but German regulators have filed objections to the proposed deal.
Deutsche Telekom needs a buyer to help reduce its 65 billion debt mountain. Europe's biggest telecoms operator by sales has promised investors it will sell assets to reduce debt to 50 billion by the end of 2002.
But there are bidders on the horizon who could help out Deutsche Telekom. Compere Associates, a London-based financing house, told CNN that it is interested in buying Deutsche Telecom's cable-TV assets.
"Should Mr. Malone not go forward we are interested in buying the business," Tom Crema, a partner at Compere, said. Crema would not say how much Compere would offer for the assets, although the company said in December it would match Liberty's bid.
Malone, the chairman of Liberty, has said his company is unwilling to meet the German cartel office's demand to upgrade cable networks to allow the provision of high-speed Internet and telephone services.
Crema said his company would upgrade the assets. The cost of which has been put at 2.2 billion.
Liberty believes the demands are too expensive and said on Friday it had offered no concessions to the cartel office.
"If the creation of sustainable competition in high-speed Internet, voice, telephony and video content is the goal, the strength of the incumbents requires a regulatory environment that will encourage regional investment by well-capitalised, experienced companies," the company said in a statement.
Deutsche Telekom's stock rose 2 percent to 15.52 on Monday. Its stock has plunged more than 60 percent from a high of 39.85 in January 2001 on concerns about its bulging debt problems. 
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