Telewest shares have been falling all week and reached a low today of 15.75p, following concerns about its £5bn debt. Yesterday, it rejected speculation that it would merge with NTL, which is sinking under a £12bn mountain of debt, after reports suggested that Liberty Media, a Telewest shareholder, favoured a merger between the two companies.
A further source of woe for Telewest was the news that Merrill Lynch was downgrading its shares to "neutral" from "buy". It said the move came over fears that Telewest would seek to restructure its debt and that the company is £340m short of being fully financed.
The company's shares started the week valued at 30p. Its shares saw a year high of 150p, but Telewest was dropped from the FTSE 100 index in September 2001. Shares in NTL, listed in New York, also fell this morning, trading down by 2 cents at 35 cents.
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