Swisscom CEO Carsten Schloter has said the company has no intention to sell Italian unit Fastweb, following media speculation that Vodafone had expressed interest.
In an interview with Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung, Scholter said Swisscom thinks it…
Swisscom CEO Carsten Schloter has said the company has no intention to sell Italian unit Fastweb, following media speculation that Vodafone had expressed interest.
In an interview with Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung, Scholter said Swisscom thinks it should develop Fastweb, noting that its fibre infrastructure “plays an increasingly important role”.
“We can further increase the value of this business,” he added.
When the journalist brought up Vodafone’s reported interest in the asset, which analysts have valued at about €3bn (US$4bn), Schloter replied that he had read about it in the newspapers.
In mid-June, Bloomberg cited unidentified sources as saying UK-based mobile giant Vodafone has included Fastweb on a list of potential takeover targets in Europe. Two sources were cited as saying that Vodafone, which agreed a €7.7bn merger with German cableco Kabel Deutschland in June, has already made informal approaches for the asset.
At the time, spokespeople for Swisscom, Fastweb and Vodafone declined to comment.
Schloter told the Swiss paper that the Italian business was “doing well”, adding that its book value had increased by €800m to €900m in the past year.
Milan-based Fastweb, which the Swiss telecoms incumbent acquired in 2007, reported 1.9 million customers in May. The company generated revenues of €1.6bn in 2012 and EBITDA of 500m. Fastweb is working to expand its fibre-optic infrastructure, aiming to reach 20% of the Italian population by 2014.
