Almost half of the Telecompaper European telecoms index (+0.6%) closed the week (week 13) down, with a large number of challengers contributing to the fall. Liberty Global (-2.7%) abandonded the planned acquisition of Multimedia Polska.
The majority had a performance in positive territory, driven by most incumbents. BT (+3.8%) was no exception, despite Moody's cutting its rating. Orange BE (+9.8%) benefitted from news of its interest in acquiring cable company VOO. Also, the index heavyweights Vodafone (+0.3%) and Deutsche Telekom (+2.3%) ended the week up. The general market, represented by the EuroStoxx 50 index (+1.9%), did a little better.
Italy: TIM and Sky in the spotlights
In Italy, TIM notified the regulator of preparing the separation of its fixed-line network. The board will convene April 9 to discuss Elliott's proposals.
Meanwhile, Sky made moves toward providing services over Open Fiber's FTTH network, as well as Mediaset's DTT network.
YTD: from -34% (VEON) to +38% (MasMovil)
Year to date, MasMovil (+38%) remains the leader. TDC (+31%) edged up a little toward the value of the Macquarie consortium's offer (DKK 50.25 per share). Sky's share price was down slightly, but is still above the higher of the two bids that were announced by Fox and Comcast (GBP 10.75 and 12.50 per share).
On the other end, things got a little worse. VEON (-34%) had its CEO resign. No fewer than six stocks are now down more than 20 percent YTD, including also German 1&1 Drillisch (-20%) and Freenet (-20%), British TalkTalk (-24%) and CityFibre (-29%), as well as Altice (-23%) and Inmarsat (-26%). Altice suffered a small set back from opposition by Vodafone against its planned takeover of Portuguese Media Capital.
