After an in-depth examination, Swiss competition commission WEKO has decided to raise no objections against the acquisition of Liberty Global subsidiary UPC Switzerland by Sunrise and has approved the transaction.
The green light was granted without any conditions being imposed. “We are very happy with WEKO’s decision and are continuing to work hard on the planned integration of UPC Switzerland into the new Sunrise. With WEKO’s approval, we have reached an important milestone on the path towards the new Sunrise,” said Olaf Swantee, CEO of Sunrise.
“Sunrise’s takeover of UPC Switzerland means that the country will now have a real competitor in its telecommunications market. By merging the infrastructures of Sunrise and UPC Switzerland and investing around half a billion francs annually, Switzerland will get high-performance internet infrastructure including 5G, which has the potential to provide 90% of households with broadband internet speeds of up to 1Gbps by 2021,” added Swantee.
The transaction is now no longer subject to any regulatory obstacles. The next step is for Sunrise to invite shareholders to an extraordinary general meeting, where a decision will be made on the required increase in capital. The general meeting is expected to be scheduled for October 23, 2019 and the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of November 2019.
However, it is unclear whether the transaction can take place at all. Freenet, the largest single shareholder in Sunrise, rejects the takeover of UPC under the proposed conditions.
