Orange and Vodafone put a major drag on the Telecompaper European Telecoms Services index last week. It was down 1.8 percent, versus a loss of just 0.3 percent for the EuroStoxx 50 index. Other stocks suffering major declines included Altice Europe (-5.0%), Veon (-4.7%) and 1&1 Drillisch (-4.5%). The winners were Tele Columbus (+12%), Orange Poland (+9.9%) and Intelsat (+7.4%).
Orange's Engage 2025 plan, Vodafone's Indian troubles
Orange (-9.4% in week 49), with its investor day, was at the centre of attention in week 49. Its 5-year plan Engage 2025 included the creation of a European tower company and the possible IPO of its operations in Africa and the Middle East. Growth is expected to come mainly from the latter unit, but also from B2B and financial services.
In other news, the company sold a portion of its towers in Spain to Cellnex (+0.8%). Last week's rumours of a possible tie-up with Deutsche Telekom (-1.2%) were followed up with the latter downplaying the possibility, while Orange said that it expected the EC not to stand in the way of a merger like this.
Vodafone (-5.9%) apparently suffered from its Indian listed unit, Vodafone Idea, potentially being in financial trouble. After the supreme court ruled that the Indian operators owe the government large back payments in spectrum fees, the company now stated that it needs government relief in order to survive.
Other news
- Digi's (+1.9%) Romanian unit will provide services over a number of third-party cable systems, of which it may acquire one.
- Magyar Telekom (unchanged) agreed a restructuring.
- Tele2 (-1.9%) created a new governance model by expanding and splitting its leadership team into a group team and a business team.
- Inmarsat (+0.2%) secured its takeover by private equity and pension funds.
