Analyst: Comcast Could Own 100% of NBCU by 2014

Comcast could buy out General Electric Co.'s 49% interest in the NBC Universal joint venture for $17 billion in the next four years, according to Citigroup media analyst Jason Bazinet, a scenario that the analyst believes would not only make sense for Comcast, but would be affordable. GE would have to request that Comcast buy out its interest, which Bazinet is assuming it will do. The analyst estimated that the partnership would increase revenue from $18 billion in 2010 to $20 billion in 2014 and cash flow would rise from $3.3 billion to about $4.2 billion in the same time frame. Free cash flow is expected to increase from $1.6 billion to $2.5 billion in 2014. Bazinet estimates that Comcast would have to shell out about $17 billion to buy out GE's 49% stake, representing a 20% premium to the value of its interest in the JV. That, the analyst said, could be funded partly with Comcast cash on hand -- estimated to be about $11.6 billion by 2014 -- and $11.5 billion in debt that could be tacked on to the partnership. Bazinet wrote that NBCU should be debt free by 2014, which would enable Comcast to heap more debt on the partnership and still maintain a 2.75 times leverage ratio.