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France Telecom extends partnership with Sonaecom (France)

  • October 30th, 2008
  • 6:05 am

France Telecom extends its partnership with Portugal based Sonaecom in which it holds 19.9% stake. The two telcos sign a 3-year extension to their orignal partnership, signed in 2005. The deal is a collobaration of both the telco’s move towards network sharing, mobile roaming, handset procurement and the provision of multimedia services.

   

Sonaecom incurs EUR6.7 million loss in Q2′08 (Portugal)

  • July 29th, 2008
  • 11:34 am

Portuguese telecommunications company Sonaecom reported a EUR6.7 million loss for the second quarter, compared with a EUR1.3 million profit a year ago, with higher investment offsetting the positive effect of a growth in sales.

Revenue rose 10.9% to EUR237.9 million from EUR214.5 million, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, fell 11.7% to EUR34.6 million from EUR39.2 million.

Operating capital expenditures rose 27.3% to EUR35 million, driven by higher investment in its mobile business.

Sonaecom said its Optimus cellular unit raised its customer base by 11.5% to 2.9 million in the three months to the end of June, while net additions grew 25.3% to over 55,000.

   

Sonaecom accuses telecoms industry of arrogance

  • April 18th, 2008
  • 1:17 pm

Portuguese operator critical of lack of customer focus; calls for terms ‘triple-play’ and ‘convergence’ to be scrapped.
Portuguese operator Sonaecom Thursday claimed that telecoms providers are not nearly as customer-focused as they proclaim to be.  

“The  industry needs to stop being so arrogant,” said Luis Reis, COO of Sonaecom.

“Forgive me for being blunt but I hear a lot of bullsh*t about being customer-centric. Customer-centric means taking someone who is completely inept with a computer, who asks why they must pay €29 a month for an Internet connection, and making them understand what they are paying for,” he said.

“No-one in the industry, us included, is doing that,” he commented at a panel discussion at Telecom World Congress in London.

Reis advocated a more concerted push by telecoms players to present an integrated customer experience.

“I believe we will eventually transform mobile broadband into personal broadband – where everyone has a personal connection that is unique to them,” he said.

“Triple-play will be replaced by seamless multi-screen access – so we need to stop talking about triple-play, and we need to stop talking about convergence and instead talk about a fully integrated experience,” he said.

Furthermore, Reis said that he expects another wave of consolidation to take place as alternative networks increase in scale and are subsequently absorbed by bigger players.

“Telecoms is a scale operation. I don’t think alternative operators will ever have enough scale, instead I expect another wave of consolidation, leaving enough room in the market for niche players,” he said.

   

 

Sonaecom must wait to make PTM bid (Portugal)

  • October 3rd, 2007
  • 1:15 pm

Sonaecom has been told it must wait until March next year before it can make a takeover bid for Portugal Telecom’s cable TV and media unit, PTM. According to Diario Economico, a clarification of stock market rules has shown that when Sonaecom made a bid for Portugal Telecom earlier this year it was also implying a bid for subsidiary company PTM. Under market regulations, Sonaecom is barred from making another approach for either of these companies for at least twelve months. Portugal Telecom is spinning off PTM and Sonaecom has been linked as a potential buyer.

   

 

PT share buyback tips Telefonica over stake limit (Portugal)

  • October 3rd, 2007
  • 11:59 am

Telefonica has exceeded the permitted limit in its stake in Portugal Telecom, reports Cinco Dias. PT’s statute number 9 limits shareholders to a 10 percent stake unless the board specifically approves a larger holding. Since PT embarked on a share buyback to reward shareholders for helping it fight off a takeover bid by rival Sonaecom, Telefonica’s share of the company’s capital has grown. On September 28, it had 10.96 percent, even though it had not bought any more shares. The Spanish telecoms operator will start to sell shares in order to reduce the stake to below 10 percent again, said sources at the company, a move which will net the operator around EUR 110 million.

   

Sonaecom expects iPhone win (Portugal)

  • September 19th, 2007
  • 6:17 am

Sonaecom says it is well placed to win a lucrative contract with Apple to act as the Portuguese distributor for the popular iPhone device. Sonaecom’s 19.9% owner France Telecom has won the distribution rights for the iPhone in France and Sonaecom says this puts it in a strong position with regards to Portugal. Sonaecom owns the country’s third largest cellular operator, Optimus. AT&T, the exclusive distributor of the iPhone in the US, recently racked up its millionth sale of the new device in less than three months.

   

 

Vodafone wants conditions on Sonaecom deal (Portugal)

  • September 5th, 2007
  • 2:03 pm

Vodafone Portugal has contested the regulatory approval given to a proposed tie-up between two of its rivals in the high speed internet market. The competition authority AdC has given the unconditional go-ahead to Sonaecom’s EUR16 million acquisition of Tele2 Portugal, but Vodafone says that conditions should have been placed on the deal as the merger could result in ‘significant obstacles to competition in the broadband market, with damages to consumers’. Vodafone wants Sonaecom to commit to freeing up space in Portugal Telecom’s exchange buildings which could be used for co-locating equipment of other broadband providers. Cellular operator Vodafone launched its first wireline internet services earlier this year.

   

 

 

Sonaecom to receive approval to buy Tele2, Oni in Portugal (Portugal)

  • August 17th, 2007
  • 2:44 pm

Portugal’s Competition Authority (AdC) will authorise Sonaecom to acquire the Portuguese operations of Sweden’s Tele2 and the residential segment of telecommunications operator Oni, reports daily ‘Diario Economico’. Speaking to the paper, the operational CEO of Sonaecom Fixo, Pedro Carlos, revealed that the company has already been informed of the conclusion of AdC’s tentative decision. Sonaecom hopes that the acquisition operation can be closed by September. The head of the Sonaecom Fixo unit estimates that the integration of the operations acquired will be completely concluded by March 2008.

   

PT opposed to Sonaecom acquisitions

  • August 1st, 2007
  • 3:14 pm

Portugal Telecom (PT) has told the country’s competition authority AdC that it is opposed to Sonaecom’s proposed acquisitions of Tele2 Portugal and Oni Telecom’s residential business, local newspaper Publico reports, citing a source from within PT. Sonaecom, which failed in its takeover bid for PT earlier this year, announced in July that it would pay EUR16 million for Tele2’s local assets. The same month it said it agreed a EUR25 million deal to acquire the residential and SoHo operations of another rival operator, Oni Telecom. If a full regulatory investigation into the deals is not launched, AdC should approve both deals by early September, Thomson Financial reports.

   

 

Sonaecom reports first-half loss

  • July 30th, 2007
  • 2:50 pm

The Portuguese telco Sonaecom has reported a first half net loss of EUR4.6 million (USD6.26 million) after a profit of EUR32.6 million in the same period last year. The 1H 2006 result was boosted by a one-off income from the sale of Sonaecom’s Enabler unit. EBITDA fell 6.2% to EUR73.2 million following a 6.9% increase in operating costs which wiped out a 4.4% rise in revenues to EUR413.4 million. Sonaecom failed in a bid earlier this year to take over larger rival Portugal Telecom, but has since confirmed deals to acquire smaller players Tele2 Portugal and Oni Telecom. Sonaecom offers a range of fixed line and internet services and is also the major shareholder in Portugal’s third largest cellular operator, Optimus.