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Time Warner Cable rejects Charter takeover approach

2014-01-14 08:46:00| Telecompaper Headlines

(Telecompaper) Time Warner Cable has rejected a takeover bid from Charter Communications, saying it "grossly" undervalues the company. TWC said this is the third approach it's had from Charter. The proposal was described only generally in a letter from Charter as being in the "low USD 130s", compared to TWC's current share price of around USD 132. Based on an interview with Charter CEO Tom Rutledge , Bloomberg reported that the offer was for USD 132.50, consisting of USD 83.00 in cash and USD 49.50 in Charter stock. TWC said Charter had previously offered cash and stock valued at USD 114 per share in June and USD 127 in October. Rob Marcus , Time Warner Cable's chairman and CEO, said the offer was a "non-starter", at just 7x EBITDA or "well below past transactions in the cable sector". Not only is the nominal value too low, the high share of payment in stock offers little to TWC shareholders, he said. According to the CEO, TWC made clear to Charter in later December that it was interested in a bid closer to USD 160 per share, including at least USD 100 in cash. Charter said in a statement that it had made "repeated overtures" to Time Warner Cable in the past six months, but only in December did the company engage in talks. Charter expects the possibility of a takeover and a premium bid has already been largely priced into TWC's share price. The response from Time Warner Cable's management led Charter to believe they had no intention of starting merger talks, so Charter is now making its proposal directly to shareholders.

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Category:Telecommunications

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