US West Inc told Computergram it would have liked a bigger stake, in Telenet, the Flemish cable consortium planning to take on Belgian state-controlled Belgacom NV in telephony and enhanced video (CI No 2,922), but there was much vying for share between the partners. It settled on a 25% stake in Telenet, with Flemish government-owned GIMV bank holding 20%, some 18 cable television companies taking 35% between them, and a group of Benelux based financial companies the remaining 20%. At the end of last year it looked as if US West, which carried out a feasibility study for the project last summer, would up its proposed stake to 50% (CI No 2,809). The company Telenet was initially formed to look at the viability of developing the region’s existing cable network and upgrading it for telephony and enhanced video services such as pay-per-view and video on demand. Following the results of US West’s study last autumn, the consortium decided to go ahead and become a fully operational company with full equity injection by the partners. US West will put in $30m of equity in the first year, which it expects to increase in the future. The Belgian venture expands US West’s already considerable presence in the cable market. It claims to be number three in the US following acquisition of Continental Cablevision Inc (CI No 2,861), and has 25% of number two player Time Warner Inc’s cable business. In the UK it is a founding partner of TeleWest Plc, which it says is winning 26% of customers with its cable passing the door, from British Telecommunications Plc. It also has a 50-50 joint venture in Amsterdam with Philips Electronics NV, KTA (CI No 2,663). Telenet is hoping to be operational in time for European deregulation of speech telephony on January 1 1998, when it will compete head on with Belgacom.
