The European telecoms services market was led by quarterly results in week 32, along with some relatively minor M&A news. Our stock index was down 1.8 percent for the week, underperforming the EuroStoxx 50 index (-1.3%). Cellnex may have benefitted from news of Arqiva considering a split. BT is continuing its downward path and has now lost 27 percent year-to-date.
Quarterly reports came in from:
- Deutsche Telekom (-2.6%), Magyar Telekom (-2.5%), OTE (-0.5%), Rostelecom (-0.9%).
- Liberty Global (-1.9%).
- Freenet (-2.5%), QSC (-4.3%)
- InterXion (+2.9%).
Some M&A news:
- BT (-7.0%) is offloading its Fleet Management unit.
- Arqiva (unlisted) could be split up, with Cellnex (+5.6%) a candidate for buying the mobile towers.
- DNA (+0.2%) will hold on to its mobile licenses, now that Telenor (-0.8%) owns a majority. The latter will launch a tender for the remaining shares in free float after closing the deal this month.
The share price performances of the TPSI European Telecoms Services:
- Turk Telekom (+8.3%) and Cellnex (+5.6%) came out the winners in week 32. Tiscali (-11%) was the worst performer, along with MasMovil (-9.0%) and TIM (-7.9%).
- Forthnet, the Greek challenger, takeover candidate and penny stock, is up 236 percent year-to-date. It is followed by Altice Europe, up 145 percent. The four weakest shares YTD are still to be found in Germany: 1&1 Drillisch -42%, Telefonica Deutschland -36%, Tele Columbus -31 percent and United Internet -29 percent. BT is coming dangerously close, with a loss of 27 percent since the end of 2018.
