'Eventful' year ahead for Belgian telcos - Citi stays 'neutral'

Orange Belgium NV

20/01/2022 07:17

** "An eventful year awaits" Belgian telcos, Citigroup says,
citing upcoming spectrum auction, changes among domestic market
players, fibre ramp-up, and towers sales
    ** Citi points to Orange Belgium  OBEL.BR  becoming an
infrastructure player via the acquisition of Voo; Proximus
 PROX.BR  speeding up fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) deployment and
floating its unit TeleSign; and Telenet  TNET.BR  set to sell
its towers, with potential monetisation of its cable network
    ** Citi doesn't however expect "truly relevant" events
before spring or summer, adding that spectrum auction takes
place in June
    ** "Our base case assumes no new entrant in b2c and that
Citymesh acquires spectrum for b2b purposes," it says 
    ** It also sees "some rationality" in the market, as all
operators will increase prices in 2022 - a first since 2016
    ** Citi reiterates "neutral" on all three telcos, opening
"negative catalyst watches" for Proximus and Telenet into Q4
results
    ** Citi flags cost pressures in Proximus' domestic market
and higher commercial investments at TeleSign as key headwinds
for 2022 not yet reflected in consensus 
    ** For Telenet, it sees near-term downside risk from capex,
before positive catalysts like tower sale, Fluvius deal, and 5G
auction kick in 

 (Reporting by Piotr Lipinski)
 ((piotr.lipinski@tr.com))