*Cough*
$34 a share + assumed debt?
Just looking at the ntl shares before all the talk of buyout they were languishing around the $22 mark, valuing the company at less than $8 billion. Currently it's valued at $8.6 billion and still riding a crest from the buyout rumours.
Though I do struggle to understand financial types and this is the same company that said on 7th November 2001
"We believe that, based on our financial outlook, we are funded up to the point where the Company becomes cash flow positive at the end of 2003."
The company is still losing money, though you have to trawl your way through a few other measures showing profit before you finally get to the mention of net loss. It sucks the way they can say 'We made £xxx operating income, £xxx operating cash flow, oh but please ignore the interest we're paying on debt that means we actually lost £xxx'.
Quote:
Operating income in the second quarter was £6.3 million, compared to £6.4 million in the second quarter of 2005. The increase in OCF arising from the acquisition of Telewest was offset by additional depreciation and amortization, also arising from the acquisition of Telewest, together with an increase in other charges. Other charges of £12.1 million in the second quarter represent old NTL employee termination and property exit costs in connection with the merger integration restructuring program.
Loss from continuing operations in the second quarter was £195.8 million, compared to £66.1 million in the second quarter of 2005. The increased loss was driven primarily by an increase in interest expense from the indebtedness incurred to acquire Telewest and an increase of £81.3 million in foreign currency transaction losses.
Net loss was £195.8 million in the second quarter compared to net income of £73.5 million in the same quarter last year, which included a £141.4 million gain on the disposal of our Ireland business.
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Cool, so not only did ntl:Telewest lose loads of money but
even taking into account the £141.4 million from sale of Ireland business the loss from the company is increased compared to last year, largely due to increased interest expense. Someone has a rather short memory about how ntl got themselves into financial trouble before... ah yes it was debt from acquisitions. Hopefully the acquisitions are all done this time and this company can work on making some profit now
Then there's the minor matter of:
Quote:
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Since the end of the quarter, NTL has completed the refinancing of its debt following the acquisitions of both Telewest and Virgin Mobile. As a result, gross debt was £6,326 million.
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Perhaps I'm missing something but I'd have thought if financial types were wanting to buy a company like ntl:Telewest they'd be wanting to pay a reasonable or even better a 'distressed' stock price considering it's a heavily loss making company with increasing levels of competition in every sector it operates, I wouldn't be looking at paying 50% premium on top of pre-speculation share price.
I still think that ntl:Telewest will be picked up as an ongoing concern by Comcast. I did suspect UPC would be interested then the ties of the ntl board to Comcast were shown to me
For those unaware Comcast is the largest CableCo in the US.
Then again what do I know, I'm just some engineering geek