Last week was relatively uneventful for the European telecoms market. The proposed Sunrise/UPC merger in Switzerland hasn't been resolved yet, but Telenor is nearing the full takeover of Finnish DNA. Our European Telecoms Services index ended week 39 up 0.5 percent, versus a decline of 0.7 percent for the EuroStoxx 50 index. SES (+11%), Altice Europe (+7.7%) and Cellnex (+6.3%) were the biggest winners, Forthnet the biggest loser (-22%).
Ongoing merger activity
The Swiss competition authority approved the proposed Sunrise/UPC Switzerland merger, but it remains unclear if Sunrise's shareholders will adequately support the associated rights issue. Reuters reported that Sunrise (+2.6% for the week) is considering reducing the size of the issue in order to get shareholder approval. Liberty Global, the current owner of UPC Switzerland, ended the week down 5.3 percent. Freenet, a major Sunrise shareholder and opposing the merger, was up 3.7 percent.
Meanwhile, Telenor (-1.0%) is having little trouble in buying out the minority shareholders of Finnish DNA. Telenor extended the offer period and has already reached a 95 percent stake.
Other news
- Quarterly results. Two minor companies reported, Tiscali (-2.5%) and Forthnet (-22%).
- Network expansion. Eutelsat (+1.8%) unveiled a global satellie constellation for IoT services. Euskaltel (+0.5%) is continuing its push to expand geographically in Spain, supported by its shareholder Zegona (-5.5%).
- M&A. Telia (-0.8%) is reassessing its Latvian unit and Telefonica (+1.3%), according to rumours, could be expanding in Brazil.
- Debt issues. Veon (+1.4%), Digi (+0.7%) and Ice Group (+0.4%) were active on the bond market and Go Internet (-1.7%) agreed a loan for expansion.
