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Wednesday 12th February 2003

Telewest revival renews NTL merger rumours 3:27PM, Wednesday 12th February 2003

Telewest shares jumped 10 per cent yesterday after the company's managing director predicted that the cable operator would make a trading profit in the fourth quarter of 2003.

The news renewed suggestions that Telewest may merge with rival cable operator NTL in 2004. Talk of merger before now has always been overshadowed by the vast debts both companies had incurred whilst swallowing up the UK's cable franchises

However, Telewest is expected to complete the restructuring of its Ł5.3bn debt within the next four months, whilst NTL recently announced the completion of its own rescheduling package.

NTL and Telewest - under the Blueyonder banner - are the UK's two cable broadband suppliers. As they do not offer competing alternatives - they are each restricted to their own geographical areas - but face strong competition from the expanding ADSL network, monopoly regulators are not expected to block any merger.

Simon Aughton

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