Telewest denies cable merger

By Bill McIntosh

Telewest and NTL shares suffered fresh losses yesterday after reports that the companies were in talks about an operational merger were played down by Adam Singer, the chief executive of Telewest.

The Financial Times reported that the heavily indebted cable operators were considering collaborating on set-top box purchasing and a joint UK-wide retail effort with a national retailer. The newspaper added that most of the companies' operations could be merged, citing Stephen Carter, managing director of NTL, and Philip Jansen, his counterpart at Telewest.

Responding to the report, which claimed that joint purchasing could save "tens of millions of pounds", Mr Singer told Bloomberg News: "We're not merging operations with NTL. I'm not aware that we've had full-scale conversations."

Mr Singer also refrained from estimating any potential savings that cooperation between Telewest and NTL could bring. "I haven't a clue," he said, when asked how much money could be saved.

The two companies already run joint advertising sales operations and are behind a programme to promote Broadband Britain. They also co-own Front Row, a pay-per-view film service. Against the backdrop of another losing session for telecoms stocks, both UK cable groups gave back part of their recent gains.

Telewest closed down 5.75p at 72.5p, while in US dealing NTL was down $0.86 at $8.65 in late trading.