Multimedia operator Telenet has confirmed a bid to take over the Brussels cable company Brutélé, which currently operates under the name of VOO. The actual bid dates back to April, but only became public after it was reported by the financial dailies De Tijd and L’Echo. The news was later confirmed by the company.
Brutélé was set up in Ixelles in 1968, and under the new name now serves customers in six communes – Ixelles, Evere, Auderghem, St-Gilles, Woluwe-St-Pierre and Uccle – with cable TV, internet and fixed telephony. Telenet, meanwhile, is present in the other communes of the capital, serving cable and internet under its own name, and mobile under the name of subsidiary Base.
Brutélé is valued at €300 million. Neither company would talk about bid prices, the report said. Telenet bought up the French company SBR Belux in December last year, which gave the Mechelen-based company a foot in the door in Wallonia, as well as an increased presence in Brussels – good for an estimated 90,000 new customers.
However Telenet’s bid faces competition from a competing bid by the Liege-based group Nethys. An answer from Brutélé is expected in the days to come, before the summer holidays, the papers said.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
