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FRANKFURT, Aug 14 (Reuters) - German internet serviceprovider United internet is mulling a completetakeover of cable group Versatel, in which it already owns astake, Chief Executive Ralph Dommermuth said.
"This is an option we are considering," he told Reuters onThursday. "It does not often happen that the second largestGerman fibre optic cable network comes on the block."
United Internet bought a 25 percent stake in Versatel for 60million euros ($80 million) in 2012. Buyout group KKR owns the rest of the group, whose fibre optic cable networkspans 33 of the 50 largest German cities and totals 53,000kilometres.
KKR recently launched the sale of its stake and peoplefamiliar with the deal said that the asset may attract peerssuch as Vodafone or Telefonica Deutschland.
Incumbent Deutsche Telekom, however, is unlikelyto bid for antitrust reasons, they added.
For United Internet the purchase of Versatel would result ina shift in strategy. Until now, United Internet haspredominantly rented bandwith and resold it using its 1&1 or GMXbrands but has not invested in a grid on its own.
In the first half of 2014, United Internet increased its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisationby 35 percent to 237.6 million euros, while sales rose 12percent to 1.43 billion euros. (1 US dollar = 0.7463 euro) (Reporting by Peter Maushagen; writing by Arno Schuetze;Editing by Victoria Bryan)
