There was no shortage of news in week 34, but it was not of such a nature that the share prices moved significantly, according Telecompaper. The earnings season continued, with reports from, among others, Sunrise (Switzerland) and Cyfrowy Polsat (Poland), and there was also some merger and takeover news. Our European telecoms index, with a gain of 0.5 percent, just beat the EuroStoxx 50 index, which closed almost unchanged.
To start, the Q2 results. In general, these led to price rises. Besides Sunrise (+5.5%) and Cyfrowy Polsat (+2.0%), the Russian operator MTS (+1.1%) and microcaps NextGenTel (Norway, +1.2%), Mobilezone (Switzerland, +8.9%) and A3 (Sweden, -3.5%) reported.
Consolidation continues
The merger and takeover news concerned some national deals. Vodafone (-0.3%) and CK Hutchison (-1.8%), owners of the Australian VHA, are looking for a further increase in scale with a proposed merger with TPG. In addition, CK Hutchison saw the EC approve its transaction with Veon (+1.7%), which means it can take full control of Italian operator Wind Tre. Deutsche Telekom (+1.2%) and Tele2 (unchanged) made promises to the regulators to get their planned merger in the Netherlands through.
Iliad-effect hasn't run its course yet
Speaking of Italy, the creation of Wind Tre continues to keep the market busy. It opened an opportunity for French operator Iliad (-2.9%) to enter the market. The aggressive offer of Iliad Italy is still forcing competitors to adjust their portfolios. Last week, Vodafone IT had its turn, first launching a plan with 20 GB and then one with 30 GB. After that it was Wind Tre, which came with a plan around a data credit of 40 GB.
Share price recovery for Altice, MasMovil and Tele Columbus
The share price movements of last week were relatively small. These varied from -7.0 percent for the Greek operator Forthnet to +16 percent for Altice Europe, which made up for a good part of the losses of recent weeks. The Spanish MasMovil (+14%) and the German cableco Tele Columbus (+13%) also showed price recovery.
The latter remained the worst performer in the year to date, with a loss of 69 percent. The recovery of Altice Europe ensured that its year-to-date performance improved to a profit of 111 percent. Intelsat continues to lead the ranking, after winning 8.6 percent last week and 606 percent year-to-date.
