Iliad’s Play completes acquisition of UPC Poland from Liberty Global

Thomas Reynaud

French telco Iliad has completed the acquisition of UPC Poland from Liberty Global.

The acquisition, which takes place via Iliad’s Polish mobile subsidiary Play, “represents Iliad’s next step in the Polish telecoms,” iliad said. UPC Poland and Play combined together makes Iliad the second largest telco in the Polish market.

For Liberty Global, the US$1.7 billion deal sees the telco complete its exit from central and eastern Europe.

The agreed sale was first announced in September 2021.

Liberty said that proceeds from the sale will amount to approximately US$600 million, after taking debt into account. Proceeds will be used for “general corporate purposes” including support for Liberty’s buyback commitment. 

The pair have also agreed a tech deal with Liberty Global to provide Play with “certain transactional services” such as network and information technology-related functions for up to four years.

Thomas Reynaud, CEO of the iliad Group, said: “Following the successful integration of Play, we are delighted to welcome UPC Polska’s teams into the iliad Group. The Fibre expertise of UPC Polska and Free, combined with Play’s innovation capacity, will enable us to rapidly launch new offers in the Polish market. The acquisition of UPC Polska will also reinforce our growth momentum and European dimension.“

Jean-Marc Harion, CEO of Play, added: “Together, we now have the largest mobile network, fastest Fiber and broadest content offering in Poland. Thanks to the fantastic teams at Play and UPC, we’re going to reinvent convergence, which will be of great advantage to Polish consumers.”