Telewest chief steps down

Heavily indebted British cable group Telewest Communications Plc said today Chief Executive Adam Singer would step down as the company tumbles down the road towards a massive refinancing.

Finance Director Charles Burdick will take the reins as managing director of the company, which has 5.3 billion pounds ($8.3 billion) of debt and equity worth 56 million.

Telewest, which is in talks with investors, is widely expected to follow the lead of larger rival NTL by handing control to bondholders.

Both Telewest and NTL, competing head-on with former phone monopoly BT and dominant pay-TV group BSkyB , are burdened with huge interest payments on debts accumulated in an acquisition spree over the past three years.

"Given our current financial position, the independent directors believe the company needs a different management style to take the business through its next phase," Chairman Cob Stenham said in a statement.

A charismatic speaker known for wisecracks, Singer presided over the period of massive expansion, which took Telewest to a 14 billion pound valuation peak and back down again.

A source close to the company said the decision on Singer's departure had been made in the last week and that it was unlikely he had plans for his next career move.

Burdick, the new boss, insisted back in May that the market's assumption about a debt-for-equity swap looming ahead for Telewest was not necessarily right.

"We haven't assumed that. We're examining all options," he said, adding that in the worst case, with no more financing or asset sales, Telewest had enough cash to last 15 months.

Telewest is set to release results on Thursday for the first half to the end of June. Its shares closed 11 percent lower at two pence.

Dealers said trade in its bonds was effectively halted after Singer's resignation. The bonds had been trading at between 24 and 26 percent of face value early in the day.

As their networks do not overlap, Telewest and NTL are widely expected to merge once they are free from their debt burdens.

Telewest offers phone, Internet and pay TV over its network. More than two-thirds of its 1.8 million residential subscribers take at least two of these, and 107,000 of them take all three.

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