Money

Liberty chooses new Virgin Media CFO as part of overhaul


Telecoms group Liberty Global has appointed Severina Pascu as chief financial officer and deputy chief executive of Virgin Media, as part of an overhaul of the UK broadband company it bought in 2013.

A former investment banker and Romanian national, Ms Pascu has risen through the ranks of Liberty Global, becoming chief executive of its Swiss cable business UPC in 2018. She joins Virgin Media at a critical time.

Liberty Global, which is US-listed and controlled by billionaire John Malone, is focusing on the future of Britain’s second-largest broadband company, having sold its German and eastern European cable networks to Vodafone last year.

It has $7.4bn of cash following the sale and has been linked with the potential acquisition of a mobile phone network such as O2 or Three, which could be combined with Virgin Media.

Last summer, it established a new investment vehicle — Liberty Fibre — to co-invest in new fully fibre-optic networks beyond its existing UK cable network and go head-to-head with BT.

But it has now changed tack and will focus on splitting off Virgin Media’s Project Lightning fibre and cable network into the new venture and establishing it as a wholesale operator that competes directly with BT’s Openreach, according to two people with direct knowledge of the revised plan. The name of the company has already been changed to Liberty Networks.

But the plan, which would transfer assets, liabilities and debt linked to Project Lightning off Liberty Global’s balance sheet, is contingent on signing an exclusive wholesale deal with Sky.

Top Liberty Global executives met in Florida last week to consider options for the UK business as well as other assets.

The sale of its German network has left the group dependent on the UK market. Virgin Media is by far its biggest asset, accounting for more than half its revenue. However, its customer base in pay-TV and telephony has stopped growing.

At the same time, its share price has fallen almost 30 per cent since September, after the $6.3bn sale of UPC collapsed last year and tough trading in the third quarter.

Ms Pascu has earned praise from her rivals in Switzerland for turning round UPC. She will work alongside Lutz Schüler who took over as chief executive of Virgin Media last year having previously run Liberty Global’s German business.

Baptiest Coopmans will take over as head of the company’s Swiss business.

Virgin Media declined to comment.



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