Last week in telecoms: reversals at Sunrise and Liberty Global, Drillisch and United, infrastructure shares lead in 2019

News General Europe 28 OCT 2019
Last week in telecoms: reversals at Sunrise and Liberty Global, Drillisch and United, infrastructure shares lead in 2019
A couple of profit warnings from Germany and a failed merger from Switzerland pulled down the telecoms sector last week. The Telecompaper European Telecoms Services index ended week 43 down 0.7 percent, versus a 1.3 percent gain for the EuroStoxx 50 index. Tele Columbus was the biggest winner on news of attracting a new large shareholder.

1&1 Drillisch (-23% for the week) and United Internet (-19%) has to readjust their core earnings downward after losing a battle over wholesale fees payable to Telefonica Germany (+6.3%). Telenor (-4.0%) reported Q3 results and agreed with the NENT Group on creating a video/television joint venture. Other quarterly reports came in from DNA (+0.1%), Orange Belgium (+4.5%), Proximus (-1.1%), KPN (-2.4%) and SES (+1.1%).

M&A

Last week's shocker came from Sunrise (-1.9%) and Liberty Global (-5.5%) all but abandoning their merger plan for Switzerland. They had to admit that shareholder Freenet (+0.5%) had found enough support for voting against a capital increase needed to support the takeover of UPC Switzerland by Sunrise. The deal hasn't been formally called off yet, but that seems to be a matter of time. Sunrise may subsequently owe Liberty Global the agreed CHF 50 million break-up fee.

In other M&A news:

Year-to-date

Year-to-date, Forthnet (Greece) is the biggest winner in our index, up almost four-fold from the end of 2018. Altice Europe more than tripled its share price.

Other winners are mostly infrastructure companies: Cellnex (+73%), InterXion (+62%), Intred (+62%), Equinix (+60%), Inwit (+56%) and the Zayo Group (+50%).

Categories:

General

Companies:

KPN,  Proximus,  Sunrise,  Telenor,  Vodafone,  OTE,  DNA,  Equinix,  Forthnet,  Freenet,  Iliad,  Interxion,  Liberty Global,  Masmovil,  Retelit

Regions:

Europe

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Related Articles

GLOBAL 25 OCT 2019

SES confirms FY outlook, after fall in Q3 revenue and EBITDA

Satellite operator SES generated underlying revenues of EUR 482.9 million in the three months to September, down 2.3 percent year-on-year at constant exchange rates (-5.4% in Q2). The company said that its results remained in line with expectations. Full-year guidance has been confirmed as the business anticipates a strong fourth quarter and 95 percent of its revenues are already contractually committed.

GERMANY 25 OCT 2019

Rocket Internet buys 12.29% stake in Tele Columbus

German investor Rocket Internet has acquired a 12.29 percent stake in Tele Columbus, Wiwo.de reports. The acquisition of voting shares was carried out by Rocket Internet with its own funds.

GERMANY 25 OCT 2019

1&1 Drillisch, United Internet lower EBITDA forecast after rejection of fee cut for Telefonica network access

German operator 1&1 Drillisch announced that its EBITDA for the current fiscal year 2019 will decrease by EUR 85 million to approximately EUR 690 million, against expectations.

BELGIUM 25 OCT 2019

Proximus maintains outlook as underlying EBITDA improves in Q3

Belgian operator Proximus reported growth in broadband, TV and mobile postpaid customers in Q3. Revenues declined on the business market, but it grew the number of mobile customers and stabilised the number of fixed lines. The operator maintained its outlook for the full year and said it will pay a dividend of 50 cents per share in December. 

NETHERLANDS 25 OCT 2019

KPN improves margin on lower sales, maintains FY outlook

Dutch operator KPN reported revenues down 1.8 percent to EUR 1.37 billion in Q3, while adjusted EBITDA improved 2.9 percent to EUR 599 million thanks to ongoing cost-cutting. The company showed growth in consumer multi-plays and some parts of the business segment, as well as in wholesale, while this was offset by lower revenues in legacy services, hardware and mobile services. Excluding one-time items such as a gain on the sale of data centres, the net profit rose 32 percent to EUR 314 million. 

GREECE 23 OCT 2019

Foreign investors examine Wind Hellas - report

At least four investment groups are said to be interested in investing in Wind Hellas, according to local paper Kathimerini citing unnamed sources. French telecommunication services provider Iliad is one of the entities mulling acquiring Wind Hellas, which has been up for sale for a long time.

GREECE 23 OCT 2019

OTE denies acquisition of local company Intralot, confirms interest in online gambling market

Greek operator OTE dismissed recent press reports about a potential acquisition or participation of the company or any of its subsidiaries in the share capital of Intralot and / or Intrasoft. However, the company confirmed recent press reports on the cooperation with Intralot in the area of online betting services.

SCANDINAVIA 23 OCT 2019

Telenor Broadcast says Canal Digital subscriber base shrinks by 6% in Q3, revenue drops 7%

Telenor Broadcast said Canal Digital's subscriber base shrank by 6 percent in the third quarter and its revenues by 7 percent. This was only partly offset by growth in the maritime data segment at Telenor Satellite. The figures come as Nordic Entertainment announced the merger of its Viasat Consumer arm with Canal Digital.

BELGIUM 23 OCT 2019

Orange Belgium adds 32,000 mobile customers, raises revenues 2.5% in Q3

Revenues for the quarter lifted 2.5 percent from the year before to EUR 334.3 million, with retail revenues, up 7.1 percent, offsetting continued lower MVNO revenues. EBITDA lifted a small 1.1 percent to EUR 83.6 million, with the operating cash flow still down, falling over 10 percent to EUR 44.3 million, while capex went to 39.3 million. The company's net debt lifted to EUR 248.8 million due to its acquisition of BKM. The net profit meanwhile weakened by 27 percen tto EUR 14.5 million, pulled down by high

SPAIN 23 OCT 2019

MasMovil denies EUR 6 bln attempt to acquire Vodafone Spain

Spain's Masmovil, the country's fourth largest network operator, has issued a statement denying a report that it was working with Goldman Sachs to acquire Vodafone Spain for EUR 6 billion. Online news site El Confidencial said Masmovil submitted a non-binding offer for Vodafone's Spanish subsidiary earlier this summer, citing unnamed sources close to the negotiations. MasMovil's offer was rebuffed by Vodafone, which requested EUR 8 billion for its Spanish unit, said the sources, adding that consultancy firm

SCANDINAVIA 23 OCT 2019

NENT, Telenor to merge Nordic pay-TV businesses in 50-50 joint venture

Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT) has announced an agreement with Telenor Group to combine NENT's Viasat Consumer satellite pay-TV and broadband television operations with Telenor's Canal Digital satellite pay-TV arm. Each party will hold 50 percent of the joint venture, and Viasat Consumer customers will migrate to Telenor's platform. The venture's combined net sales amount to approximately SEK 7.6 billion with 1.26 million subscribers on 30 June.

ITALY 23 OCT 2019

Retelit acquires PA Group for EUR 74 mln

Italian telecommunications infrastructure provider Retelit has agreed to acquire Udine-based Partner Associates SpA Group (PA Group) for a total of EUR 60 million plus an earn-out of around EUR 13 million over 3 years based on achieving performance objectives. ICT specialist PA Group is a systems integrator with around 8,000 business customers across Italy and revenues of EUR 60 million in 2018, with an Ebitda of around EUR 10 million. Its subsidiary InAsset owns four data centres plus a 1,700 km fibre-opti

SWITZERLAND 22 OCT 2019

Sunrise says UPC Switzerland takeover deal 'dead'

The acquisition of UPC Switzerland by Sunrise is unlikely to go ahead. Liberty Global said in a statement that it supports the decision of Sunrise to cancel the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for 23 October.   

FINLAND 22 OCT 2019

DNA Q3 net sales rise 5%, EBITDA up 4% as mobile service revenue and equipment sales climb

Finnish operator DNA, which has recently become part of the Telenor Group, has reported a 5 percent rise in net sales in the third quarter to EUR 238.8 million. This was fuelled in particular by an 8.1 percent rise in mobile service revenue to EUR 124.0 million, as well as a 10.5 percent upturn in mobile device sales. The fixed subscriber base grew 77,000 year on year thanks to new broadband connections.

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Background

01:04

The week in telecom: Wi-Fi bolt-ons take off to boost broadband growth, video market works on consolidation

01:39

The week in telecom: Netflix wins bidding for Warner Bros, Apple poaches new execs, Samsung debuts trifold

13:51

Proximus vs. Telenet: Proximus performs better in Q3 while Telenet uses up cash

14:16

Proximus Domestic still struggling with low margins

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