Liberty Global and Vodafone have named Jeroen Hoencamp CEO and Ritchy Drost chief financial officer of their proposed joint venture in the Netherlands, the companies said Tuesday.

Liberty Global and Vodafone announced the JV in February. The 50-50 partnership, which is still in the regulatory review process, is a combination of Liberty Global's Ziggo Dutch cable operations and Vodafone Netherlands.

Hoencamp is currently the CEO of Vodafone UK. A Dutch citizen,  he has led Vodafone’s UK business since September 2013 and was previously Chief Executive of Vodafone Ireland. In addition, Vodafone named Hoencamp CEO OF Vodafone Netherlands, effective Sept. 1.

Drost has been CFO of Ziggo since September 2015. Over a 17-year career with Liberty Global he has held a number of senior management positions including CFO European Broadband Operations and Managing Director and CFO of UPC Netherlands, Liberty’s predecessor Dutch cable operation. Prior to joining Liberty Global, he was an auditor at Arthur Andersen.

 “Jeroen and Ritchy are experienced business leaders with extensive operational, strategic and merger integration experience," Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao and Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a joint statement.We are delighted they will be shaping our companies’ shared mission to create a strong and competitive integrated communications provider serving consumers, businesses and public sector customers in the Dutch market."

Additionally, Liberty Global announced that Ziggo CEO Baptiest Coopmans will remain in that position until completion of the transaction, after which he will join the supervisory board of the joint venture as one of Liberty Global’s appointed directors.  Coopmans has served as Ziggo CEO since November 2014 and successfully led the merger and integration of UPC and Ziggo.

Vodafone Netherlands CFO Carmen Velthuis will remain in her current position until the merger has completed. Vodafone will announce her subsequent assignment at a later date.

 “I am particularly pleased that Baptiest Coopmans has agreed to join the joint venture supervisory board once the transaction is completed," Fries said in a statement. "He is an experienced leader and a trusted member of my executive team whose knowledge of the Dutch broadband and pay TV market will be invaluable. I look forward to working with Baptiest in this new role and exploring other opportunities in the Liberty group.”

As expected, Liberty Global and Vodafone have agreed to merge their operations in the Netherlands in a 50-50 joint venture valued at $29.2 billion that will combine Vodafone’s wireless communications assets in the country with LGI’s video, broadband and business services.

The JV will operate under both the Vodafone and Ziggo brands and will create a nationwide integrated communications provider with over 15 million revenue generating units – 4.2 million video, 3.2 million broadband, 2.6 million fixed line telephony and 5.3 million mobile customers.

As part of the deal Vodafone will make a $1.1 billion cash payment to LGI to equalize ownership in the JV.

Liberty Global and Vodafone have been talking on and off about an asset swap for several months, but talks broke down in September, reportedly on valuations. They were restarted in early February, which Vodafone confirmed in a statement, but provided no details.

The venture will strengthen LGI’s Ziggo cable, phone and broadband service in the Netherlands by giving the operators a strong wireless component.  The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

“This powerful combination of the best fixed and mobile networks in the Netherlands will deliver huge benefits to Dutch consumers and businesses,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a statement. “Throughout Europe, Liberty is capitalizing on the rising demand for lightning‐fast broadband speeds, the coolest digital TV platforms and apps, and seamless 4G wireless connectivity. Soon, both Ziggo and Vodafone customers in the Netherlands will be at the forefront of this new world, and we couldn't be more excited about our partnership with Vodafone. We look forward to working together to develop cutting‐edge converged services for the Dutch market.”

The deal also fuels hopes that the two companies could possibly move forward in the future on a broader combination. But, according to a report in the Financial Times, the two have insisted that the Dutch talks have not included discussions about any other parts of their respective businesses.

Both have pledged that the combined JV will invest in digital infrastructure, entertainment services and productivity for Dutch consumers.

“Together we will be a stronger competitor in the Netherlands, benefiting customers of both companies and the market as a whole,” said Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao in a statement. “This transaction marks a continuation of Vodafone’s market‐by‐market convergence strategy and we look forward to partnering with Liberty Global to create a fully integrated provider in one of our core European markets.”

John Malone’s international cable operator Liberty Global moved closer to domination in the land of Hans Brinker and wooden footwear Friday, receiving approval from the European Commission that helps pave the way toward completion of its planned acquisition of Dutch cable company Ziggo.

“We are pleased that the European Commission has approved our pending acquisition of Ziggo, which will benefit consumers and businesses across the Netherlands given our commitment to investment and innovation in the Dutch market,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said in a statement. “We are excited to create a national cable champion, and look forward to restarting our share buyback program very soon."

Liberty Global, which already owns a 28.7% interest in Ziggo, announced in January its plan to acquire the rest of the company for about $13.7 billion.  With the addition of Ziggo’s 2.7 million subscribers, Liberty Global – which already has about 3.7 million Dutch cable customers through its UPC Netherlands unit – would reach about 90% of homes in the country. According to the Commisson, the combined company would control between 60% and 70% of pay TV subscribers in the Netherlands.

“The approval from the European Commission is an important milestone in the process of combining two individual cable companies into a strong national provider for Dutch consumers,” Ziggo supervisory board chairman Andrew Sukawaty said in a statement. “Both the Management and Supervisory Board have unanimously recommended the offer to shareholders as we believe it is in the best interests of Ziggo and its stakeholders, including shareholders.”

To help with approval of the deal, Liberty Global agreed to divest of its Film1 premium pay TV channel and to terminate clauses in its carriage contracts with content companies that limit their ability to offer programming over the Internet. Liberty Global also agreed not to include such clauses in any of its carriage agreements with programmers for eight years.

"The commitments offered by Liberty Global ensure that the acquisition of Ziggo will not be detrimental to Dutch consumers, who will continue to enjoy the benefits of innovative services and choice for watching audio visual content,” Commission vice president in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia said in a statement.

Liberty Global expects the deal to be closed by next month.

Six months after agreeing to acquire the remaining shares of Dutch cable operator Ziggo that it didn’t already own, Liberty Global has named UPC Netherlands CEO Baptiest Coopmans to head up the combined company and set a price for a planned tender offering for Ziggo shares.

Liberty Global agreed to buy the remaining shares of Ziggo it didn’t already own in a January in a cash and stock deal valued at about $13.7 billion.  LGI had previously owned a 28.5% interest in the company. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year.

In a statement Friday, Liberty Global said it has named Coopmans as CEO of the company once its deal is completed. Coopmans, who is currently managing director of LGI’s UPC Netherlands operations, replaces Rene Obermann, who will resign after the deal is closed.

LGE Holdco, a unit of Liberty Global, also has set an offering price of 35.74 euros ($48.77) per share for holders of existing Ziggo stock, a 47% premium to the 24.30 ($33.16) euro price of the shares in March 2013, when Liberty purchased its initial stake in the company. The price is a little higher than the 34.53 euros ($47.18) LGI offered in January, mainly because Liberty’s stock price has risen. As part of the deal, Ziggo shareholders would receive 0.2282 shares of LGI and 11 euros in cash for every Ziggo share they hold. LGI said the tender offer will commence on July 2 and end on Sept. 10.

Liberty had courted Ziggo for months before sealing the deal earlier this year. The combination with Liberty’s UPC Netherlands operation will create the dominant player in Dutch cable, reaching about 7 million homes.