Sunrise plans Swiss IPO

Swiss service provider Sunrise has announced plans to launch an initial public offering in the first half of this year. 

The firm plans to list on the SIX Swiss Exchange and said that the IPO would “substantially strengthen” its balance sheet and allow it to exploit future growth opportunities.

Sunrise added that going public would support its strategy of investing in integrated mobile and fixed network technology and underlined its commitment to the Swiss market.

“I am enthusiastic about the prospect of welcoming public shareholders into the Sunrise family and enabling them to invest in the largest fully-integrated challenger in the Swiss telecommunications market,” said Sunrise CEO Libor Voncina.

“The planned IPO will underpin the execution of our strategy and facilitate our ongoing investments into technology, customer care and network to continue the improvement of customer experience and service quality for our valued Swiss customers.”

Sunrise is Switzerland’s second largest telecoms operator and has more than 3.3 million customer relationships across mobile, landline, fixed internet and IPTV services.

The firm claims a 27% marketshare in mobile and 9% in fixed broadband and said it is strongly positioned to “capture the convergence opportunity in the consumer segment” and to grow its market share in the B2B segment.

Sunrise reported revenues of CHF2 billion and EBITDA of CHF 621 million for the twelve months ended 30 September.