Telewest offload television assets

Beleagured cable and television company Telewest have finalised a £45.1m sale of their 16.9% stake in SMG, the owner of the Scottish and Grampian ITV companies, to a group of institutional investors.
It is speculated that the unnamed buyers may find the stock a good investment if the soon to be merged Carlton and Granada take an interest in SMG.
Telewest have also said they would look at offers for their content division, Flextech, which operates a number of pay-TV channels such as Trouble and Challenge TV. Flextech is also the BBC's partner in UKTV, which owns UK Gold and UK History.
The drive to raise funds for a Telewest restructuring process continued with the sell of their television studios in Maidstone, Kent.
The studios have been sold to a group of local businessmen for £4.25m, which will go towards keeping Telewest afloat while it finalises a deal with bondholders to slash £3.5bn from its £5.3bn debt pile.
Telewest is hoping to complete a debt for equity swap, which will leave existing shareholders with just 3% of the company and bondholders with the remaining 97%, by the end of the month.
(GB)