Vodafone has agreed a €18.4 billion deal to buy a significant part of Liberty Global’s European cable business, following the completion of a joint venture with Liberty’s cable business in the Netherlands. This is a significant step in Vodafone’s converged communications strategy, and covers Germany, Vodafone’s largest market, along with its Central and Eastern European (CEE) markets – the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

As well as significant mobile businesses across in all four countries, Vodafone also owns the largest cable business in Germany, having bought Kabel Deutschland in 2013. The deal will see Vodafone acquire Germany’s second largest cable businesses, Unity Media, which is geographically separate from its existing cable footprint, allowing it to offer Gigabit connections to 62% of German households. In CEE, the combined businesses will reach over 6.4 million homes (39% of total households).

Frontier is advising on the transaction and regularly advises parties in Europe and elsewhere on competition issues, including in merger approval proceedings.

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