Chello's IPO called off?

Broadband operator Chello, active in Europe, Australia and the Americas, was about to go public on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and Nasdaq last week, but called off the IPO the night before. The company announced that strategic talks were held relating to the IPO. However the IPO was not called off due to the subdued stock market climate in the US and the Netherlands.

Although Chello's press releases have not been updated since May 19th, it has transpired that Chello is in talks with Telewest, a cable company active in the USA and UK. Chello has announced that its IPO is not off, but rather has just been postponed until mid June.

The move comes amid concerns that investors were not interested in chello shares, which were to be priced at between 13 and 17 euros, giving the whole firm a market valuation of between 3.5 billion and 4.6 billion euros.

Chello only had 181,000 customers at the end of the first quarter, but is adding 3,000-5,000 customers per week, according to analysts close to the company.

Europe's largest cable operator in terms of number of customers, UPC is 51 percent owned by UnitedGlobalCom. Microsoft Corp owns 7.0 percent of UPC's shares.

Chello, which is majority-owned by cable company United Pan-Europe Communications NV (UPC), was due to debut on the the Amsterdam and Nasdaq bourses.