US cable giant Liberty Global, which owns Dutch cable firm UPC, has taken a 12.7% stake in Dutch market leader Ziggo.

Liberty Global said it has spent €632.5m buying 25.3 million Ziggo shares from British bank Barclays. Barclays was left with the stake after the flopped sale of a 20% interest by Ziggo’s venture capital owners Cinven and Warburg Pincus.

Liberty Global described the purchase as ‘an attractive opportunity to make a strategic investment in a market where it already enjoys a sizeable presence through its UPC Netherlands subsidiary’.

Ziggo later issued a statement saying it noted the acquisition and would ‘continue to focus on executing Ziggo’s strategy in the best interests of its stakeholders’.

Ziggo is Dutch market leader with around 55%. UPC has around 35% of the market.