Last week's telecoms news was dominated by two spectrum auctions, one in Finland and one in Italy. It resulted in generally lower share prices, with quite a few stocks hitting a year low. Our European telecoms index lost 1.6 percent in week 40, the same as the EuroStoxx 50 index. But it didn't prevent Intelsal from reaching a new all-time high and a year-to-date gain approaching 900 percent.
Auctions in Finland and Italy
The Finnish 5G auction didin't draw much attention until its Italian counterpart ended just a few days later, demanding a much higher pay-out. Telia (+0.4%), Elisa (-3.8%) and DNA (-5.0%) ended up paying very modest amounts. TIM (-5.1%), Vodafone (-2.6%), CK Hutchison's (-5.6%) Wind Tre and Iliad IT (-12%) had to bid much higher in an auction that had created artificial scarcity of 3.7 GHz spectrum. Meanwhile, competition in Italy is fierce as can be, with Wind Tre, Iliad and Vodafone launching fresh promotions.
M&A
Tele Columbus (+18%), the German cable operator, made a recovery from previous losses, as takeover speculation mounted. Forthnet (-4.0%), the Greek challenger, set 19 October for final bids. Sky (-0.2%) saw Comcast raise its stake to 77 percent by taking over 21st Century Fox's 39 percent stake. And Altice (+5.3%) confirmed earlier rumours that it's considering co-investors for its fibre infrastructure.
Intelsat roaring ahead
The week's winner was Tele Columbus, followed by satellite operators Eutelsat (+12%) and Intelsat (+11%). The weakest stocks were Iliad and Tiscali (-9.9%). Year-to-date, performances range from -73 percent for Forthnet and +895 percent (i.e. a tenfold increase) for Intelsat.
