By Kim Richters and Ian Walker

John Malone's Liberty Global PLC said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Sunrise Communications Group AG for 5 billion Swiss francs ($5.45 billion) in cash, funded from existing cash and debt.

The cable group said it is offering CHF110 for each of the Swiss telecommunications company's shares, a 28% premium to the closing share price of CHF86.20 on Tuesday. The tender offer is expected to start by the end of August.

Liberty Global said it plans to fund the deal through around CHF3.5 billion of cash from its balance sheet and around CHF3.2 billion of debt, "of which CHF1.6 billion will be available to refinance existing indebtedness of Sunrise as needed."

The offer, which sets Sunrise's total enterprise value at CHF6.8 billion, has the backing of the Sunrise board.

Sunrise's largest shareholder, Freenet AG, which owns about 24% of Sunrise share capital, also supports the deal. It said Wednesday that it committed to the offer and would receive around CHF1.22 billion for the sale of 11.05 million Sunrise shares if the tender offer is completed successfully.

At 0820 GMT, Freenet shares were trading 15.9% higher at EUR18.18.

Liberty Global's takeover offer comes after Sunrise failed to take over Liberty's Swiss unit last year. The deal had collapsed in October due to lack of support from Sunrise shareholders.

Liberty Global said Wednesday that "the combined business would have CHF3.1 billion in revenue, 2.1 million mobile post-paid subscribers, 1.2 million broadband subscribers and 1.3 million TV subscribers, reflecting approximately 30% market share in each segment."

Credit Suisse International, JPMorgan and LionTree Advisors are advising Liberty Global financially on the transaction, while Homburger AG and Shearman & Sterling LLP are legal advisers for the deal. 



  Write to Kim Richters at kim.richters@wsj.com or Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com