Liberty Global Announces Intention to Spin-Off 100% of Sunrise to Shareholders

Liberty Global Ltd. (Liberty Global) (NASDAQ: LBTYA, LBTYB and LBTYK) today announces its intention to spin-off 100% of Sunrise to Liberty Global shareholders. The transaction aims to maximize shareholder value by crystallizing the value of Sunrise, allowing shareholders to fully participate in the future growth and upside of both Sunrise and Liberty Global. The spin-off will also provide scope to broaden and deepen the investor base given the distinct and compelling investment profiles of both Sunrise and Liberty Global.

The spin-off will leverage the full potential of Sunrise as a locally listed FMC challenger, building on the successful integration of Sunrise and UPC since their combination in 2020. The operational business will not be affected by the spin-off. Customers, employees, suppliers, or other stakeholders can rely on continuity.

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries commented: ‘The proposed spin-off of Sunrise to Liberty Global shareholders is aligned with our strategy of unlocking value by allowing our shareholders to directly participate in the future performance of Sunrise. Liberty is fully committed to listing Sunrise with a strong capital structure which, alongside its future cash generation potential, will underpin Sunrise’s attractive equity story and scope for dividends.’

Sunrise CEO André Krause said: ‘We are excited at the prospect of being listed in Switzerland once again and providing local and international investors with access to our scaled FMC challenger position in the market. Following the successful integration and synergy delivery of the UPC combination, Sunrise has a very strong FCF profile and plans to offer an attractive shareholder remuneration framework. We will present more detail at a Capital Markets Day later this year.’

Key Sunrise investment highlights include:

• Attractive macro and telecom market: 100% exposure to the attractive Swiss telecom market, characterized by favorable macro fundamentals including low inflation, appealing tax environment and low cost of capital, a stable three-player structure and supportive regulatory framework
• Strong fully-converged national challenger: Clear number two operator with scaled positions across all fixed, mobile and converged products in the market
• Best 5G coverage and next-generation fixed network: Delivering nationwide 5G and 1 GIG coverage to support a multi-brand strategy and converged offerings
• Multiple growth levers: Strategy focused on growing share in B2B and B2C segments, combined with further cost efficiencies and low capital intensity, benefiting from high quality, well-invested infrastructure and attractive wholesale economics
• High cash generating asset: Sunrise benefits from strong cash generation and expects to have a more de-levered balance sheet with a long-term fixed rate debt profile (with 5 years average maturity, ~3% average cost of debt) enabling an attractive dividend distribution policy going forward
• Experienced management team: Sunrise leadership have strong telecoms track record and experience in managing a listed company with CEO André Krause and CFO Jany Fruytier

The listing of Sunrise on the SIX Swiss Exchange is planned for 2H24. Sunrise will be listed with a long dated, low-cost capital structure supported by up to CHF1.5B ($1.7B²) of debt reduction. The debt reduction is expected to be accomplished through Sunrise’s expected FCF generation, debt optimization and Liberty Global corporate liquidity including non-core asset disposals at Liberty Global.