Liberty Global’s Sunrise reports modest growth in Q1

Liberty Global-owned Swiss telecom Sunrise posted revenues of €798 million, with slower growth during the first quarter. 

Source: Sunrise

The telco’s Q1 results came in below of its Q4 number in 2023, with revenue up 4.4% YoY in Q1 on a reported basis and down 0.1% YoY on a rebased basis. Sunrise said this was due to the positive impact of last year’s July price increase and continued momentum in mobile subscription and B2B, offset by lower handset revenues.

Adjusted EBITDA also increased slightly by 0.2% to of €261.4 million in Q1 compared to the same quarter of the previous year. With Q1 net loss down by 90.8% YoY to €130.1 million.

At the star of year, the company made staff cuts to cut costs and create a more leaner company structure, with 166 employees made redundant.

Meanwhile, Sunrise saw stable customer growth, earning a total of 1.19 million TV subscribers in Q1, along with 2.85 million mobile and 1.19 million broadband customers.

Sunrise also made high investments totalling CHF 131.0 million in the first quarter, most recently the acquisition of Lausanne Industrial Services’ cable network. The Swiss outfit took over SiL’s cable net in 10 municipalities surrounding the city of Lausanne, with more than 17,000 households and businesses transferred to Sunrise.

As part of the acquisition, the company said it will be providing telecommunications services, including broadband and TV, to businesses and individuals, and modernising the cable network to make it future-proof.

Liberty Global announced it will spin off 100% of Sunrise to shareholders in February. The parent company said the spin-off “aims to maximize shareholder value by unlocking the fully distributed value of Sunrise over time, supported by Sunrise’s fully integrated FMC challenger position, attractive growth outlook, excellent expected cash generation and experienced management team”.

Commenting on the financial results, André Krause, CEO of Sunrise, said: “We have started 2024 with a strong operational and solid financial result. We continued our growth momentum in mobile post-paid across all segments, despite a generally less liquid market compared to the previous year. At the same time, we achieved strong net growth in the Internet segment that was also driven by increased customer loyalty. Overall, we are well on track, fully confirm our guidance for the 2024 financial year and expect positive effects of operational cost optimisation in the following quarters. We also look forward to being listed on the Swiss stock exchange again soon.”