Liberty Global CEO ‘confident’ of Ziggo success
Liberty Global CEO Michael Fries is confident European authorities will soon approve his company's bid for Ziggo, but is not interested in a much-rumored deal with Vodafone, he told CNBC.
"We will be patient as we've always been, but it does look pretty good," Fries told CNBC on Friday.
The international cable operator's bid for smaller rival Ziggo has been under investigation by European antitrust authorities since May. A ruling is not due until November 3.
However, hopes the takeover will be allowed were boosted earlier on Friday by comments from Joaquin Almunia, European commissioner for competition, who is due to leave his post at the end of next month.
"I don't expect any other negative decisions (on mergers) until the end of October," Almunia said, according to Dow Jones, at an annual competition conference in Italy.
Fries has taken Almunia's words as a sign Liberty Global is likely to get the go-ahead from regulators.
"We have always been pretty confident that the deal would get approved and the remarks that he made today seemed to confirm that confidence, so we're hopeful," Fries told CNBC.
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Liberty Global is owned by billionaire John Malone. Its annualized revenue for the first half of this year was $18.3 billion.
Since 2011, the company has gobbled up smaller players—as has the U.K.'s Vodafone, which is said to be interested in a deal with Liberty Global.
Bloomberg reported last week that Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao had said a deal with Liberty Global could be a good fit "for the right price".
However, Fries told CNBC: "We are not looking for that kind of thing".
"They have made some smart acquisitions: I like the deals they've done in Germany and Spain," he said. "The synergies are fantastic for their business so I get what he (Colao) is doing; it makes a lot of sense. Does it make sense to do it with us? I don't (think so), not today."
—By CNBC's Katy Barnato