German MVNO, Freenet announced that it has agreed to buy a 23.83 percent stake in Swiss operator, Sunrise Communications for EUR 714 million. Sunrise is Switzerland’s second-largest mobile-phone operator.
Freenet's acquisition of roughly 10.7 million shares in Sunrise from investment group CVC Capital Partners will see its CEO Christoph Vilanek and chief finance officer Joachim Preisig joining the Sunrise board.
The company added that the dividend proposal of 1.55 euros for the financial year 2015 and 1.60 euros for the financial year 2016 remain unchanged with the acquisition.
The company also confirmed its current financing strategy and maintained its assumption of a target corridor of 1.0 to 2.5 as debt factor, interest cover (ratio of EBITDA to the interest balance) of at least 5, a liquidity reserve of around 100 million euros and an equity ratio of more than 50 per cent.