Sunday, January 16, 2022

Week 2/2022 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

  • VodafoneZiggo
    • Raises EUR 2.1b from bonds under Sustainable Finance Framework [see 220105]: $1,525 million 5.0% Sustainability-Linked Senior Secured Notes due 2032 and €750 million 3.5% Sustainability-Linked Senior Secured Notes due 2032, to close 220120, to redeem €2.1 billion (equivalent) of existing debt, consisting of $1,600 million 5.5% Senior Secured Notes due 2027 and €620 million 4.25% Senior Secured Notes due 2027
    • if one or more objectives are not actually achieved, VodafoneZiggo will pay an increased coupon rate not exceeding 0.25% and increased optional repayment charges of 0.125% from 2026 onwards, until the maturity date. If, on the other hand, VodafoneZiggo achieves both targets, it will benefit from a reduction of the costs by 0.125% if the loan is repaid prematurely
  • Vodafone Idea: Agrees to defer regulatory & spectrum fees for 4 yr, interest (INR 160b) to be converted in equity (at 10 INR/share), gvt to own 35.8% stake, Vodafone Group's stake to be reduced to 28.5%, Aditya Birla Group's to 17.8% [free float 17.9%] - India will not take control
  • CK Hutchison: Bloomberg: Wind Tre to sell minority stake in remaining infra, EQT interested

Networks

  • Deutsche Telekom: 2021 data traffic: YouTube #1 (357 TB/day, +96% yoy; "One thing is certain: unchecked increases in traffic volumes caused and monetized by a few large Internet platforms are not sustainable. The resulting costs for network expansion are shouldered by the telecommunications industry to prevent bottlenecks in the network and to be able to offer customers good video quality. At the same time, rising traffic volumes are causing environmental costs, which are also being passed on by the Internet companies. Policymakers would therefore be well advised to set price signals and thus create incentives to optimize traffic flows." [cf 220105]
  • Telefonica: Telefonica ES sells ADSL network to Macquarie (owns Onivia), to convert to fiber
  • TIM
    • Bloomberg: KKR considers PIF (Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund) to join in making offer
    • Gvt IT wants to keep control of key assets
  • 3 Group Europe (CK Hutchison): Bloomberg: Wind Tre to sell minority stake in remaining infra, EQT interested     
  • Fastweb (Swisscom): Strategy update (You are future): to invest EUR 3b 2022-2025, plans expansion of FWA/FTTH to 12m HH in 2000 munis (14.5m pops with FTTH, 12.5m addresses with FWA) by 2025 (currently 400 munis), 5G pops coverage 90% by 2025 (currently 45%), 40 edge nodes by 2025, opens Security Operation Center in Bari, to increase digital skills of 500k pops, to become carbon neutral by 2025
  • AT&T: Rumor: DirecTV (AT&T 70%, TPG 30%) reconsiders merger with Dish
  • BAI Comms (neutral host) launches smart city project in Sunderland to support smart home (care), smart schools (distance learning), smart factories (Industry 4.0); plans 5G network based on Mavenir MAVedge solution (Open RAN & Core)
  • Comcast demos 4/4 Gb/s over Docsis 4.0, with Broadcom (Full Duplex Docsis 4.0 SoC modem)

Services

  • BT
    • Rumor: nears sale of BT Sport to DAZN, $800m = GBP 583m
    • BT Enterprise establishes Division X, Marc Overton MD from 220214, to focus on Private 5G, MEC, IoT, AI
  • Enreach: Acquires Telsome (ES, cloud telephony)
  • Gamma Communications: 21Q4 trading update: adj EBITDA and adj EPS in tophalf of guidance range
  • OVH Cloud: 21/22Q1 
  • Zayo Group: Acquires QOS Networks (SD-WAN and edge managed services) from M/C Partners
  • Apple: Update 2021
    • focus on services/apps (Fitness+, News, News+, Maps (incl Guides from >100 sources), TV+, Apple TV app, Arcade (>200 premium games), Music (>90m tracks), Music TV, Primephonic, Podcasts, Books (>8m books & audiobooks, >100m MAU, Audiobook Store))
    • App Store (incl movie premieres, In-App Events; 600m WAU in 175 countries, paid out $260b since 2008 to developers o/w $60b in 2021 based on feee of 15-30%)
    • Apple TV 4K box (with Siri Remote available in 24 countries)
    • Apple Card, Apple Pay (available in <60 countries, works with <9k bank partners), Wallet
    • iCloud, iCloud+, Apple One (apps + storage, available in >100 countries, Apple One Premier in >20 countries); total >745m subscriptions, >1b installed devices
  • WeTransfer
    • Plans IPO in Amsterdam, primary (to raise EUR 160m) & secondary offering
    • currently 87m MAU in 190 countries, 387k subs (Sep 2021)
    • NPS 80 (Feb 2021)
    • 2018-2020 rev CAGR 31%, rev 2021E >$100m
    • global serviceable addressable market $66b in 2021, increasing to $77b by 2024; plans to expand iaddressable market by addressing adjacent user verticals
    • to launch WeTransfer Premium tier Jan 2022
    • medium term targets: rev growth high 20s, share of subs rev low 40s, adj EBITDA margin to increase to mid 20s    
  • Netflix: Raises prices in US (6th rise since 2014): Basic/Standard/Premium from 9/14/18 to 10/15.5/20 USD/mo; in Canada from 10/15/19 to 10/16.5/21 CAD/mo

Hardware

  • Nokia 2021 prelim (to exceed guidance, one-off margin benefits 150 bp, rev EUR 22.2b (from 21.7-22.7), comparable oper margin of 12.4-12.6% (from 10-12), FCF clearly positive (unchanged), RoIC 17-21% (uinchanged)), outlook 2022 (oper margin 11.0-13.5%)
  • Honor launches Magic V 220118 in China: high-end foldable smartphone
  • John Deere launches autonomous tractor

Regulatory

  • BIPT (BE) plans simultaneous multi-round auction (700 (5G), 900, 1400 (5G), 1800, 2100, 3600 (5G); valid 20 yr) June 2022, applications by 220216
  • EC opens EUR 258m fund to support gigabit, cloud, 5G roll-outs in 11 projects (part of Connecting Europe Facility = CEF Digital), submissions by 220322
  • Platforms
    • Google
    • Facebook
      • US Court allows FTC to continue antitrust case (WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions to secure dominance in social networking)
      • Sued by Liza Lovdahl Gormsen (with lawfirm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan) in CALS at Competition Appeal Tribunal (London) over social networking dominance abuse 2015-19, based on unfair pricing (personal data); demands GBP 2.3b ($3.1b) to be paid to UK users (44m, opt-out)
      • Bloomberg: FTC & US State AGs plan to sue over anticompetitive behavior by Oculus
    • Apple: Operators (Vodafone, Telefonica, Orange, DT, T-Mobile US) oppose iCloud Private Relay (beta, for patying iCloud subs, part of iOS 15; VPN-like tool, hides IP address & DNS records for providers & websites, routes web traffic over 2 relays (nodes)) on hindering network mgt, innovation, commerce, violates DMA


at 10:47 pm

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