* Managing director says ready to be consolidator
* Made offer for Tele Columbus' Berlin assets
* Also made offer for Deutsche Telekabel
By Arno Schuetze
FRANKFURT, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Primacom, Germany'sfourth-largest cable operator, wants an active role in themarket's consolidation, its managing director said, and hasalready made bids for certain assets of Tele Columbus and for Deutsche Telekabel.
"We are hunters not hunted. We are ready to be aconsolidator", Wolf Waschkuhn, managing director and supervisoryboard member of Primacom told Reuters. "We have put in bids forthe Berlin assets of Tele Columbus and for Deutsche Telekabel."
The German cable market was once one of Europe's mostfragmented, with a proliferation of smaller regional playersoffering television and broadband services.
But companies like Kabel Deutschland andUnitymedia restructured it by buying smaller companies, beforebeing bought up by multinationals themselves.
Cable companies have become hot assets as their cable lines,designed to deliver TV to homes, have been upgraded to carryvoice calls and Internet at speeds often five times faster thancompeting services from telecom operators and they have beensnatching customers from them.
Last week, Vodafone completed the 7.7 billion euro($10 billion) takeover of Germany's largest cable company KabelDeutschland.
In 2011, Liberty Global purchased Unitymedia for3.5 billion euros and two years later KabelBW for3.2 billion euros. The latter deal is in doubt after a Germancourt in August reversed an antitrust approval.
Kabel Deutschland earlier this year walked away from buyingTele Columbus for about 618 million euros after Germany'scompetition watchdog blocked the deal.
Tele Columbus, which is owned by several hedge fundsincluding York Capital, Anchorage and GoldenTree following afinancial restructuring, is one of the few assets left.
It has attracted interest from private equity groups CVC and Cinven, which are offering to buy TeleColumbus in a potential deal valuing the company's equity anddebt at roughly 600 million euros, two people familiar with thenegotiations said.
Tele Columbus still has 570 million euros in net debt, oneof the sources said.
The CVC and Cinven also earlier this month handed in bidsfor much smaller Deutsche Telekabel, which could be valued at upto 150 million euros, the sources said.
Primacom's Waschkuhn sees his group - which emerged from afinancial restructuring itself and is now profitable again - as more attractive as a potential partner.
"In contrast to financial sponsors we can act as a strategicpartner and reap synergies (from a potential acquisition)." Hesaid he has backing from the group's owners - Alcentra, AvenueCapital, Tennenbaum Capital and ING - for a potentialdeal.
In Primacom's view, the Tele Columbus' eastern German assetsare highly profitable, accounting for two thirds of TeleColumbus' earnings, while the western German assets are seen asfar less attractive.
According to a source familiar with the negotiations,Primacom is also considering the purchase of all of TeleColumbus, if its price expectations are met.
Tele Columbus supplies 2 million households in Germany withTV, internet and telephone services, while Primacom supplies 1million and Deutsche Telekabel 270.000 households.
Tele Columbus, Deutsche Telekabel, CVC, Cinven and York andAnchorage declined to comment, while GoldenTree was notimmediately available for comment.
Rothschild, which is advising Tele Columbus as well asGoetzpartners, which is advising Deutsche Telekabel, alsodeclined to comment.
Vodafone (VOD)
