Com Hem’s owners snap up rival

US-based buyout firms Carlyle and Providence Equity have agreed to pay SKr3.269bn (US$427m) for Liberty Global’s regional cable company, UPC Sverige.

The deal would be a planned bolt-on to last year’s near-US$1.2bn purchase of Com Hem in the country.

UPC Sverige supplies TV and broadband services to about 300,000 households in Sweden. Com Hem, which was sold by local buyout firm EQT, has 1.4m customers in Sweden for TV, broadband and telephony.

The transaction is conditional upon regulatory approval, after which the companies are expected to merge.

Deutsche Bank advised Liberty. Although the private equity firms’ adviser was not revealed, Goldman Sachs had advised and arranged the debt on the Com Hem purchase with legal counsel from Setterwalls.