Liberty Global weighs stake sale in Swiss telecom unit Sunrise, sources say

Liberty Global

05/07/2024 15:49

By Oliver Hirt and Amy-Jo Crowley
       ZURICH/LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - Liberty Global
 LBTYA.O  has explored selling a stake in its Swiss telecoms
operator Sunrise ahead of a planned spin-off later this year,
three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. 
    Talks have taken place with several investors including
Swiss family offices on the matter, two of the people said,
speaking on condition of anonymity. 
    Liberty Global, set up by U.S. cable pioneer John Malone,
announced in February it would spin off Sunrise to shareholders
on the SIX Swiss exchange in the second half of this year. In
early May, Liberty Global said the plan to spin-off Sunrise was
on track for the fourth quarter. 
    JP Morgan and UBS, which are advising on the spin-off plans,
are leading the search for investors, according to the people.
Both banks declined to comment.
    A spokesperson for Liberty Global declined to comment on
ongoing conversations with investors but said it remains
committed to injecting 1.5 billion Swiss francs from Liberty
Global’s balance sheet into Sunrise before the spin off to
reduce leverage. 
    He added that there is a "high degree of conviction in the
value of the business, evidenced by the commitment to a minimum
dividend of 240 million Swiss francs." A spokesperson for
Sunrise declined to comment and referred questions to Liberty
Global.
    Former Credit Suisse CEO Thomas Gottstein had wanted to be 
involved in the spin-off, according to local press reports. In
February, a spokesperson for Gottstein said the former banker
hoped to use his advisory firm to find investors willing to buy
shares before Sunrise`s listing.
    A spokesperson for Gottstein declined to comment to Reuters
on the matter.
    Any deal could value Sunrise, which is the second-largest
Swiss telecoms provider behind state-controlled Swisscom
 SCMN.S , at an enterprise value in the range of 8 to 9 billion
Swiss francs ($8.91 billion), the first two people said. Liberty
Global took Sunrise off the stock market in 2020 for 6.8 billion
Swiss francs.
   The rationale for selling a stake in Sunrise could help with
managing any shares that are sold by Liberty shareholders in the
wake of the spin, so-called flowback, one of the two people and
a third person said. 
    Some of Liberty Global's shareholders may not want to own a
telecoms company operating solely in Switzerland, and those
share sales could be lessened if investors were to commit to
buying packages of shares in advance, the people said. 
    However, negotiations with some Swiss family offices have
slowed recently on concerns around Sunrise's high level of debt
and Liberty Global's valuation expectations for this business,
the first person said.
    Sunrise's net debt at the end of the first quarter 2024 was
5.53 billion euros, and the ratio of net debt to annualized
earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization
(EBITDA) was 5.13. 


($1 = 0.8977 Swiss francs)

 (Reporting by Oliver Hirt and Amy-Jo Crowley. Editing by
Anousha Sakoui and Christina Fincher)
 ((oliver.hirt@thomsonreuters.com; +41 41 528 36 36;
www.reuters.com;))