VodafoneZiggo, Telenet and Virgin Media O2 presented mixed results over 3Q25. Fortunately, KPIs are improving somewhat. Given the competitive end markets, our conviction to buy or sell the notes of any of the three companies remains low. Leverage remained stable QoQ. Nevertheless, we still see upside to the VMED and ZIGGO notes if either Vodafone or Telefonica were to acquire full ownership of their joint ventures or if the businesses where to IPO.
Liberty Global has reported weak Q3/25 results, with revenues for consolidated entities up 1.0% in reported terms to USD 1.21 bn, and adjusted EBITDA declining 5.7% in rebased terms to USD 337 mn. We are particularly concerned about the continued reduction in the subscriber base. In our opinion, market conditions remain very difficult in many of the group's markets, and we expect little improvement in the conditions until the altnet consolidation starts in earnest.
In today's Morning Views publication we comment on developments of the following high yield issuers: Intrum, Liberty Global, Iliad, International Personal Finance, Nissan Motor, Borr Drilling, Seche Environnement, Adler Pelzer, Ontex, Nomad Foods (Iglo), Paragon, Boparan, Ineos Quattro
Liberty Global’s Q3 results contained no new strategic announcements – and this suggests none might be forthcoming next Tuesday at Telefonica’s CMD either with regard to VMO2, which we think is concerning for the credit outlook at that business.
A big day for VMO2 – not only do we have the Q3 results which we analyse in detail here – and which show further pressures in the core fixed business….but we also have an FT article suggesting VMO2/ nexfibre is interested in buying netomnia, and which we assessed in our earlier note….
As we were waiting for the VMO2 results to arrive and making our final preparations, the FT has published an article suggesting that VMO2 is in advanced stages to buy Netomnia for c.£2bn. However, the VMO2 Q3 results which have just been published make no mention of this. Earlier this month, we recently published a deep-dive note looking at Netomnia.
nexfibre (the Liberty Global/ Telefonica/ InfraVia UK fibre venture) has just published their 2024 accounts, which helps to give more insight on their network build, their customer trends and financials. We believe customer numbers on nexfibre were higher than previously expected, implying lower customer volumes on the legacy VMO2 footprint. In this quick note we analyse the key takeaways from this and the impact on VMO2.
Two of the most common questions we get asked at the moment are: 1) How will the UK broadband market consolidate?, and 2) What can VMO2 do to turn around their performance? We believe an interesting answer to both of these questions could be for VMO2 to consider shutting down their HFC network and moving to wholebuy Openreach’s FTTH network. This could be both value accretive for VMO2 and BT – and allow for a more rational UK market structure. In this thought-piece, we explore further how this...
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