Vodafone reaches a deal to buy Kabel Deutschland

Vodafone has agreed to buy Germany’s largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland for €7.7bn, adding TV and fixed-line services to help defend against rising competition.

In Vodafone’s largest deal in six years and its second major buy of a European fixed-line network in 12 months, the group is offering a near 40% premium to Kabel’s share price before its interest first emerged in snapping up the target’s 8.5m connected homes.

The price was pushed up in the last week by an approach from John Malone’s Liberty Global, which could still return with a higher bid, but two sources said that they did not expect that to happen.