Piste off

22 October 2019 By Ed Cropley Follow @edwardcropley

John Malone’s sale of his Alpine cable outfit UPC is off after an investor revolt at its suitor, Sunrise. The erstwhile buyer has to swallow a 50 mln euro exit charge and misses the chance to challenge peer Swisscom. The Liberty Global boss’s M&A halo gets a bit of a dent.

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Switzerland’s Sunrise Communications and Liberty Global agreed on Oct. 22 to scrap a shareholder meeting to approve a 2.8 billion Swiss franc rights issue.

Sunrise’s largest shareholder, Germany’s Freenet, had led opposition to the cash call, which would have helped pay for the 6.3 billion Swiss franc acquisition of Liberty’s UPC cable business.

Although the share purchase agreement remains in place until February, Sunrise Chief Executive Olaf Swantee said he was now focused on a standalone strategy.

Sunrise shares were up 2.8% at 79.75 Swiss francs by 1210 GMT on Oct. 22.

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