Private equity firm CVC is reportedly preparing to sell or list Sunrise in the next six to 18 months after acquiring Switzerland’s number two mobile operator in 2010.
Banks have yet to be hired for either move although discussions with them have…
Private equity firm CVC is reportedly preparing to sell or list Sunrise in the next six to 18 months after acquiring Switzerland’s number two mobile operator in 2010.
Banks have yet to be hired for either move although discussions with them have already started, reported Reuters citing sources.
But a person with knowledge of the situation played down the speculation, adding there were no imminent plans to start any process for Sunrise.
The report valued the telco’s equity and debt at around SFr3.2bn (US$3.6bn).
CVC, which declined to comment, bought Sunrise from Danish mobile operator TDC back in late 2010 for around SFr3.3bn (US$3.3bn).
In that same year an attempt to merge Sunrise with local mobile operator Orange Switzerland was blocked on competition grounds. Orange Switzerland was later snapped up by rival private equity firm Apax Partners in 2012.
The other mobile player in Switzerland is its incumbent Swisscom, which has been a vocal supporter of in-market consolidation in the past.
More recently, Sunrise has been on an MVNO acquisition spree that saw it pick up two operators in July for undisclosed sums. It acquired prepaid MVNO Ortel Mobile from privately-held Treternity, and the Swiss unit of Dutch MVNO Lebara.
Around 70% of CVC’s Sunrise acquisition was financed through debt, split between loans and bonds.
BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and UBS acted as global coordinators and MLAs for the loans, with Societe Generale and Unicredit as MLAs and joint bookrunners. For the bond offering, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank were global coordinators, while Societe Generale, UBS and Unicredit were joint bookrunners.
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