Altice Europe and Tele Columbus were last week's biggest winners. The shares were up 11 and 20 percent, respectively. Altice, as a result, extended its year-to-date gain to 70 percent, whereas Tele Columbus reduced its year-to-date loss to 42 percent. The Telecompaper Stock Index European Telecoms Services ended the week up 1.1 percent, versus a practically unchanged EuroStoxx 50 index.
German auction
The biggest news in the European telecoms sector came from Germany, where the BNA wrapped up its multiband spectrum auction. It brought in EUR 6.55 billion, but more importantly, it will see 1&1 Drillisch (+1.1%) and its controlling shareholder United Internet (-2.7%) evolve into a network operator, from their current virtual status. The other winners, Deutsche Telekom (unchanged), Vodafone (-1.4%) and Telefonica Deutschland (-2.4%), all complained about the amount of money they felt obliged to spend, claiming that it would have made more sense to devote this money to network expansion. Their works councils predicted that the market entry of Drillisch would lead to job losses.
US merger
Deutsche Telekom was further confronted with increased uncertainty over the proposed merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint. On the one hand, a number of US states filed lawsuits against it, on the grounds of decreasing competition and expected job losses. On the other hand, the Justice Department, according to reports, asked the two companies to see if Dish, Charter or Altice USA would be interested in acquiring assets that would be needed to be sold off for merger approval.
Other news
- Elisa (+1.1%) bought a software company for EUR 70 million.
- CK Hutchison's (-1.0%) 3 UK announced its 5G launch for August.
- Cyfrowy Polsat's (+4.6%) rating was upgraded by Moody's.
- Proximus (-0.2%) launched a new television interface, which could have negative implications for the Belgian broadcasters.
- MasMovil (+1.7%) will be added to the Ibex 35 from 24 June.
