Liberty agrees €1.3bn deal to buy Base as part of asset sweep

Liberty Global has agreed to acquire a mobile operator for the first time, paying €1.33bn for Belgium’s third-largest mobile operator Base.

The cable group, whose major shareholder is US billionaire John Malone, has been buying assets across Europe and has started to offer quadplay services of broadband, pay-TV, fixed line and mobile. It will acquire Base through its majority-owned Belgian subsidiary Telenet. Base’s current owner KPN had previously pulled a planned sale after failing to attract satisfactory offers, with France’s Altice said to have expressed interest.