Skip to Content »

Wireless Federation » archive for 'Q-telecom'

Wind Hellas grows customer base 5.4% in Q2 (Greece)

  • August 13th, 2007
  • 11:17 am

Greek mobile operator Wind added 222,294 new customers in the second quarter for a total 4.389 million at the end of June. That includes sister company Q Telecom, which merged with Wind in June. Q Telecom’s customer base rose by around 90,000 in the quarter to 1.256 million. The combined group’s pro forma sales rose 7.4 percent from the year-earlier period to EUR 275.3 million, while ARPU fell to EUR 21.9 from EUR 25.4. EBITDA fell 16.2 percent to EUR 78.8 million, and operating profit dropped 41.4 percent to EUR 26.0 million, hurt by a sharp rise in costs after the company’s re-branding to Wind. The net loss widened to EUR 14.9 million from EUR 0.8 millon a year ago.

   

Stormy Weather (or ill Wind?) for Sawiris, PPC talks

  • July 22nd, 2007
  • 6:30 pm

Talks between Naguib Sawiris’ telecoms group Wind and Greek utility Public Power Corporation (PPC) regarding the acquisition of PPC’s 50%-minus-one-share in alternative Greek telco Tellas have collapsed, according to sources close to the matter, quoted by local press. Egyptian tycoon Sawiris, also chairman of Orascom Telecom, is said to have instructed Deutsche Bank to find a buyer for his group’s 50%-plus-one-share stake in Tellas, in line with earlier statements that he would either seek 100% ownership of the fixed line and broadband operator, or exit completely.

Sawiris’ family-controlled holding vehicle, Weather Investments, acquired Greece’s third largest mobile operator TIM Hellas, and its wholly owned subsidiary Q-Telecom, for USD3.4 billion in February, and relaunched the company under the Wind Hellas banner. Weather Investments also controls Italian telco Wind Telecomunicazioni, itself the controller of Tellas, the largest competitor to Greek incumbent OTE, and Sawiris has revealed plans to merge all his Greek assets by the end of 2007, but the strategy rests on Wind acquiring the remaining shares from state-controlled PPC. Domestic firm Marfin Investment Group (MIG) has confirmed that it is also interested in acquiring PPC’s Tellas stake.

   

 

Domestic investment group waiting in wings for Tellas

  • June 26th, 2007
  • 1:56 pm

Greek firm Marfin Investment Group (MIG) has confirmed that it is interested in acquiring domestic utility Public Power Corporation’s 50%-minus-one-share stake in the country’s second largest fixed line telco Tellas. Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris holds the majority stake in Tellas via Italian telco Wind Telecomunicazioni, itself wholly owned by Egypt-based Weather Investments. Sawiris is trying to get PPC to sell its share as cheaply as possible, and has hinted he will sell his stake if negotiations fail. In early February 2007 Weather Investments bought Greek cellco TIM Hellas for a total of EUR3.4 billion, including subsidiary Q-Telecom, and renamed the operator Wind Hellas.

   

Sawiris ready to unite Greek fixed line, mobile, internet operations

  • May 23rd, 2007
  • 10:04 am

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, the chairman of Orascom Telecom, has announced that his telecoms holding vehicle Weather Investments will make an offer within the next two weeks to buy the 50%-minus-one-share that it does not already own in Greece’s largest alternative telco by revenues, Tellas. Egypt-based Weather Investments owns its 50%-plus-one-share interest in Tellas through its wholly owned subsidiary, Italian telco Wind Telecomunicazioni, whilst the remaining shares are held by PPC Telecommunications, a unit of Greek electricity company Public Power Corp (PPC). Earlier this year Weather acquired Greece’s third largest mobile operator by subscribers, TIM Hellas, and its subsidiary Q-Telecom, which provides GSM, fixed line and internet services, and Sawiris immediately proposed a plan to combine his new Greek assets with Tellas by the end of 2007 to create a new full-service competitor to incumbent telco OTE. Weather Investments is in advanced talks with PPC about buying its stake in Tellas, Sawiris told Reuters on Saturday. ‘We are currently planning to prepare an offer [in]…maybe two weeks maximum,’ he said, adding that ‘We have to come to a price which is fair,’ but declined to give a figure. If the acquisition is agreed, he plans to combine the three companies and expand their fixed line and broadband services, and possibly make further acquisitions: ‘We intend to put them under one roof…[Greece has the] lowest broadband penetration in western Europe…we could buy a cable company, a fibre-optic company; we could buy some of the ISPs.’ TIM Hellas and Q-Telecom are in the process of merging their operations

   

.

TIM Hellas moves to net profit in Q1

  • May 17th, 2007
  • 1:20 pm

TIM Hellas moved into the black in the first quarter, posting a net profit of EUR 6.3 million versus a loss of USD 8.8 million. The Greek mobile operator’s results were helped by lower interest expenses and improved operating results. Revenues rose 13 percent to EUR 243 million, helped by higher equipment sales as well as some EUR 5.7 million from sister company Q Telecom switching to roaming on the TIM network from Vodafone. Average revenue per user fell to EUR 25.5 from EUR 28.1 a year ago. Operating profit rose 55 percent to EUR 34.3 million. TIM gained 122,078 new customers in the quarter for a total 2.96 million at the end of March.

   

Weather completes TIM Hellas takeover

  • April 27th, 2007
  • 8:40 am

Telegeography writes…Greek mobile operator TIM Hellas Telecommunications has announced the completion of the 100% takeover of its parent holding company Hellas Telecommunications (Luxembourg) by Weather Investments, the telecoms holding vehicle of Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris. The deal was first announced in February, when Weather agreed to buy TIM Hellas and its sister company Q-Telecom, Greece’s third and fourth largest cellcos by subscribers, from Apax Partners and Texas Pacific for a total of USD4.4 billion. Sawiris has also proposed a plan to increase Weather subsidiary Wind’s 50%-plus-one-share stake in Greece’s largest alternative fixed line telco Tellas to 100% by buying out its joint venture partner, Greek electricity utility Public Power Corporation (PPC).

 

 

 

Weather confirms acquisition of TIM Hellas

  • February 7th, 2007
  • 12:51 pm

Telecompaper writes…Weather Investments has confirmed it will acquire Greek mobile operator TIM Hellas for EUR 3.4 billion, including some EUR 2.9 billion in debt. TIM Hellas is the third largest mobile operator in Greece with more than 3 million subscribers as of 30 September 2006. Weather has agreed financing for the EUR 500 million equity portion of the acquistion with loans from Citibank, Banca IMI and Deutsche Bank. It will maintain TIM’s leveraged balance sheet, a result of a recent refinancing of the company by private equity owners Texas Pacific and Apax. TIM Hellas’ management will remain in place, and Q-Telecom also forms part of the transaction. Weather already controls Italian operator Wind and has a 51 percent stake in Greek fixed operator Tellas.