By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Interest in the multi-million-pound sale of the state-owned Cablelink company is heating up, with NASDAQ-quoted United Pan-Europe Communications the latest company to throw its hat in the ring.
The mainly Dublin-based Cablelink, which is jointly owned by RTE and Telecom, has about 62 percent of the national cable business and is expected to fetch about £300 million for the Exchequer coffers when it is sold in May.
UPC, which is a subsidiary of the U.S.-based United International Holdings company, is already a giant on the European cable stage with 5 million homes linked to its systems and the first multi-supplier of video, telephone and data service.
Other companies who have already declared an interest are Cable Management Ireland which has licenses in Dublin, and the U.S.-Irish consortium TCI/Princes Holdings.
UPC vice-chairman John Riordan a former chairman of Princes Holdings, said he expected there would be four or five serious bidders for Cablelink.
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He said that if they were successful they would provide programming, broadband Internet, phone services and pay-per-view and video on demand services.
He said that if their Cablelink bid is successful they would also be interested in buying Princes Holdings, which is the country’s second largest cable company with 150,000 customers.