Having broken off talks to sell it to or put it into a joint venture with Philips Electronics NV, Koninklijke PTT Nederland NV has decided to grant management and operational independence to its wholly-owned KPN Kabel BV European cable television infrastructure unit. It has to do something because the Dutch government has ordered it to distance itself from NV Casema – a Dutch cable television systems firm 77%-owned by KPN Kabel, so that Casema can compete with PTT Nederland in local telephone service. PTT Nederland said it would retain 100% ownership for the time being but that KPN Kabel would be converted into an independently managed company to be called Vision Networks NV. It will no longer consolidate Vision Networks’ results in its own figures, just showing dividends.
