Liberty Global says its bid values Sunrise at 6.8 billion Swiss francs (US$7.47 billion) – and its bid has the full support of Freenet, a German operator with a 24% stake in Sunrise.
It was Freenet’s opposition to Sunrise’s €5.5 billion bid for Liberty’s Swiss unit last year that helped scupper the deal, which saw Sunrise CEO Olaf Swantee leave the group.
Mike Fries (pictured), CEO of Liberty Global, said: “This powerful combination of 5G wireless and gigabit broadband will accelerate digital investment at a time when connectivity has never been more essential.”
In early 2019 Swantee told Capacity of Sunrise’s plan to build a fixed wireless network in Switzerland, using 5G kit from Huawei, to bring broadband to rural areas.
Fries said: “Fixed-mobile convergence is the future of the telecom sector in Europe, and now Switzerland will have a true national challenger to drive competition and innovation for years to come.”
The deal mirrors a UK plan, with Liberty Global’s British cable unit Virgin Media due to merge with Telefónica’s O2 UK to create a fixed and mobile operator.
Fries implied that he’s looking for more such deals: “Even after this deal, and assuming completion of our recently announced UK transaction, we will continue to have approximately $7 billion of liquidity to drive value-creation for shareholders.”
Since leaving Sunrise, Swantee has become an adviser to investment group Warburg Pincus, which is investing £400 million in a London fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) company, Community Fibre. Swantee will become executive chairman of the London company as soon as the deal is completed.
