Tata Communications eyeing British C&W Worldwide

Tata Communications Thursday said it is considering an all-cash offer to acquire Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Britain’s largest business fibre network, and could decide on the transaction by the end of this month.

The company in a regulatory filing said, “Considerations are at a very preliminary stage and there can be no certainty that the offer will be made”.

Tata Communications runs one of the largest telecom cable networks in the world. The C&W Worldwide acquisition would provide the company a larger share in the voice and data services business.

Cable & Wireless Worldwide owns the UK’s biggest fibre network dedicated to business users of telecom and has an 425,000 km long international cable network. It provides managed voice, data and Internet Protocol-based services.

Earlier, the UK-based Vodafone said it would bid for C&W Worldwide.

Tata Group has made many high priced acquisitions in foreign countries in the recent past.

These include acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steel major Corus in 2007 by Tata Steel, British Jaguar-Land Rover by Tata Motors in 2008, and the Tetley Group in 2000 by Tata Tea, now named Tata Global Beverage.

At the Bombay Stock Exchange, shares of Tata Communications were 2.04 percent up at Rs.237.50.