Liberty Global Wednesday announced that it has completed the previously announced sale of cable provider UPC Austria to T-Mobile Austria for an enterprise value of €1.9 billion ($2.2 billion).
T-Mobile Austria is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. The combination with UPC Austria will allow T-Mobile Austria to compete against larger companies like A1 Telekom Austria.
The proceeds, after considering the repayment of debt Liberty Global attributes to UPC Austria, will be around €900 million. Liberty Global wants to use the proceeds to increase its share repurchase programme by $500 million (€428 million) and to repay additional debt across select credit pools.
According to Liberty Global, its Board of Directors authorized this increase to the buyback program in connection with the closing of the sale. The increase supplements its previously announced $2.0 billion share repurchase program, which it intend to complete by year-end 2018.
