Week 7 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

• Orange
• 20Q4; outlook 2021: EBITDA AL stable, capex EUR 7.6-7.7b, organic telecoms CF EUR 2.2b (3.5-4.0b in 2023), lverage (net debt/EBITDA AL) 2x medium term
• Establishes Totem: towerco for FR, ES (25500 sites o/w 17000 in FR o/w 55% towers & 45% rooftops; 8000 in ES divided 50/50 over macro sites & rooftops), to raise colocation rate from 1.3 to 1.5 in 8 yr, plans 3000 build-to-suit sites; pro forma rev EUR 500m, EBITDA AL 300m, margin 57% [see 191204] - Considers partnerships with Vodafone (Vantage Towers), DT (Deutsche Funkturm), to keep control
• Vantage Towers (Vodafone)
• 20/21Q3
• Partners with Sigfox in Germany for low-power IoT - Aims to be 5G superhost
• Liberty Global: 20Q4; merger Virgin Media UK with O2 UK to close mid 2021
• VodafoneZiggo (Vodafone, Liberty Global): 20Q4 prelim; guidance exceeded (adj EBITDA growth 6%, PPE 20% of rev, TSR EUR 501m, synergies EUR 214m one yr early); Guidance 2021: adj EBITDA growth 1-2%, PPE 19-21% of rev, TSR EUR 550-650m; 1 Gb/s over Docsis 3.1 coverage 3m HP (o/w >1m subs), target 80% penetration YE 2021 (with >2m subs), nationwide early 2022; to upgrade Mediabox XL (1m subs) to Mediabox Next UI; plans IT systems integration; to migrate to fully digital operating model; Bonds: issued $91m Sr Secured Notes Nov 2020 (4.875%) at 104% to redeem 10% of SSN due 2027 (4.25%); Issued $200m SSR due 2030 (4.875%) to redeem $200m of SSR due 2027 (5.5%); Leverage incl vendor & handset financing 5.49x; IPO optional
• Sunrise UPC (Liberty Gloabl): 20Q4
• Tele Columbus: Mgt submits change-of-control confirmation; successful offer requires 50% + 1 share by 210315; plans rights offering 21Q2, EUR 475m
• Bouygues Telecom (Bouygues): 20Q4; new governance: to separate Chair (Martin Bouygues) and CEO (Olivier Roussat); Bouygues Telecom appoints Richard Viel Chair & CEO
• CETIN (PPF): Bloomberg: plans IPO, valuation EUR 4b

Networks

• Point Topic: residential broadband tariffs ranking by country 20Q4 (total 82 countries): Ukraine cheapest, NL #39
• KPN starts FTTH roll-out in Haarlem, plans 72k premises, to start in Delftwijk

Services

• Telecoms
• Telenet bundles Tadaam (FWA-over-4G + OTT-TV) with Base (mobile), 5 EUR/mo discount
• MasMovil (KKR, Cinven, Providence): Launches MoneyGO for Yoigo subs: banking services (device financing, cc, loans up to EUR 60k)
• Video
• Walt Disney: Plans 10 original series for Disney+ in Europe (4 from FR, 3 from IT, 2 from DE, 1 from NL), target 50 by 2024
• NBCU (Comcast): Hayu (reality) expands to 11 new countries: ES, PT, FR, IT, CH, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, PL, HU, CZ (earlier to DE, AT), 5 EUR/mo
• YouTube (Google/Alphabet): To expand Shorts (short vertical videos) [a la TikTok] to US March 2021; to add 4K, downloads for offline viewing & DVR to YouTube TV; to launch in-video shopping
• Web services
• Google: Updates Google Meet, Classroom, Google Workspace for Education for e-learning with >50 new features
• Facebook: To restrict users from sharing news in Australia in response to Media Bargaining Code
• WhatsApp (Facebook): WhatsApp ToS to change (share payment & transaction data with Facebook in order to help better target ads), new conditions to be accepted by 210515, then few weeks for asking users to comply, then users to be blocked from reading & sending messages, then to delete inactive accounts after 120 days
• IBM: WSJ: IBM puts Watson Health business (annual sales $1b) up for sale; brands: Merge Healthcare (analyzes mammograms & MRIs), Phytel (assists with patient comms); Truven Health Analytics (analyzes complex healthcare data)

Regulation

France wants changes to DSA: each member state to have the right to fine tech platforms & force them to remove illegal content; proposes illegal content to also contain harmful content & disinformation