CableTel listed in New York

INTERNATIONAL CableTel has become the first major UK cable television company to be publicly quoted through the issue of 10 million shares on New York's Nasdaq, writes Mary Fagan.

Earlier this year the company agreed to acquire interests in cable franchises in Glasgow, Cardiff, Newport, Guildford and Huddersfield, covering almost one million homes, making CableTel one of the UK's largest cable companies.

International CableTel was formerly known as Ocom, an American long-distance telephone and microwave company. About 10 million existing shares in Ocom convert to shares in the new company on completion of the deal.

The issue price of dollars 27 per share compares with an Ocom share price of dollars 5 when it announced its entry to the UK market, and values CableTel at dollars 540m.

The dollars 270m raised through the share issue is expected to cover much of the building of CableTel's UK franchises, although debt finance may be raised at a later date.

Cable fortunes revive, page 21