GMT Communications Partners, the European private equity firm, and the private equity arm of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, the US merchant bank, are taking an alternative approach to buying into Germany's cable TV industry.

GMT and Veronis are focusing on smaller, fully integrated cable networks rather than the giant spin-outs from Deutsche Telekom. Jeff Montgomery, the managing partner of GMT, said: "People made a mistake by buying only one part of a network. If you fail to buy the last mile of cabling to the end-user your fortunes depend on someone else. You can upgrade your own network, you cannot upgrade someone else's."