Spain's cable firm Euskaltel mulls partial listing - report

MADRID, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Spanish cable company Euskaltel has hired Rothschild as advisers to explore a potential partial listing on the stock exchange, business daily Expansion said on Saturday, citing sources close to the firm.

Euskaltel, which is partly owned by private equity funds Trilantic and Investindustrial and operates exclusively in the Basque country, in northern Spain, would join a growing list of Spanish firms seeking a listing as international investors are keen to invest in the country as its economy rebounds.

Expansion said the two funds would list at least 25 percent of the share capital of the company. They currently own 48.1 percent of Euskaltel, while regional lender Kutxabank owns 49.9 percent and Spanish utility Iberdrola has a remaining 2 percent.

According to preliminary estimates, the listing could value the company at between 400 million and 500 million euros ($455 million to $569 million), the paper also said.

Euskaltel and Rothschild were not immediately available to comment.

Euskaltel is one of three local cable players still dominating their regional home market against national sector leader Ono, which was acquired by Vodafone last year.

Analysts have long said they expect the three cable firms to consolidate between themselves or with a bigger player such as Ono, and that the listing of one of them could be the trigger for a wave of mergers or acquisitions. ($1 = 0.8789 euros) (Reporting by Julien Toyer; Editing by Alison Williams)