Swiss: Competition authority OKs Sunrise plan to buy Liberty Global’s UPC

The Swiss antitrust authority has approved Sunrise Communications’s plan to buy Liberty Global’s Swiss UPC business, the Swiss telecommunications company announced on Thursday, September 26.

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.

Full Content: Reuters

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.