Sprint closed today at a discount of $1.09, or 11%, to the value of T-Mobile’s original offer. This suggests a 5% to 7% cut in the Sprint deal price may be coming. Will SoftBank play along?
(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG may have defused a potential land mine in its still-fragile turnaround.A once-treacherous decision about whether to retire one of the bank’s riskiest bonds in April has almost become a nonevent amid signs of progress in the overhaul and overwhelming evidence of the lender’s ability to sell Additional Tier 1 notes in a red-hot market. The bank has also avoided much of the opacity that riled Banco Santander SA bondholders ahead of a similar AT1 call decision last year.“They’ve done everything right, particularly since this is an asset class that’s created so many ...
An Australian investigator who helped bring criminal cartel charges against Citigroup Inc and Deutsche Bank AG told a court he met agents from another regulator in a cafe to discuss the matter but the talks were "high level" only. Citi, Deutsche, their client Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd and several of their current and former executives are accused of forming an agreement during an A$2.5 billion ($1.7 billion) ANZ stock issue to withhold selling unwanted shares to prevent them from falling when they hit the market in 2015. In pre-trial hearings, lawyers for the banks and ...
For an event meant to showcase the power of telecoms, cancelling this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona without a back-up plan has perplexed many in the trillion-dollar sector. Wednesday's decision to call off the telecoms industry's biggest annual gathering over fears of coronavirus, which has yet to reach mainland Spain, has left a hole in marketing budgets and dealt a $500 million blow to the local economy. Sony and Nokia said after pulling out of the event that they would hold product launches online instead, while South Korea's Samsung Electronics showcased a new folding phone ...
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Is Sprint Corp. a duck or a rabbit?Bear with us. Earlier this week, SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son showed investors a bemusing slide with an ambiguous image of a duck and rabbit. If you look at the picture from the right, you see a different critter than the view from the left.In his characteristically gnomic fashion, he was trying to suggest that there were two ways of evaluating SoftBank, and investors were doing so from the wrong perspective. But the analogy could also hold true for Sprint, the U.S. carrier in which SoftBank is the biggest shareholder, ...
Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has today affirmed the Baa1 senior unsecured rating and (P)Baa1 MTN program ratings of Deutsche Telekom AG (DT) and Deutsche Telekom International Finance B.V. Concurrently, Moody's has affirmed DT's Prime-2 (P-2) commercial paper rating. A full list of affected ratings can be found at the end of this Press Release.
(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Telekom AG wants to renegotiate the terms for the sale of Sprint Corp. to its U.S. wireless unit T-Mobile US Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.The German carrier, the majority owner of T-Mobile, is seeking a lower price because Sprint’s shares have been trading below their level when the deal was proposed in 2018, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the deliberations are private.Getting one of the biggest U.S. wireless mergers ever over the finish line would be a boon to both companies. For Deutsche Telekom, the deal reduces its reliance ...
The decision to cancel a major telecoms conference in Barcelona slated for later this month after mass withdrawals due to fears over a coronavirus outbreak was motivated only by a desire to protect people's health and safety, organisers said on Thursday. "This is not about money - it's about health and safety and the reputation of our show," Mats Granryd, director general of the GSMA telecoms association that hosts the event told a news conference the day after announcing its cancellation.
Commerzbank’s new chief financial officer has vowed to “look everywhere” for fresh cost cuts just days after it emerged that a European Central Bank official had urged Germany’s second-biggest bank to speed up its restructuring. Following the collapse last spring of merger talks with Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank laid out ambitions to axe 10 per cent of annual costs by 2023 in a plan that will cost 2,300 jobs and close a fifth of its branches. Bettina Orlopp, Commerzbank’s incoming CFO, said that the bank had started looking for additional savings on top of those announced last year.
The German telecoms company, which owns more than 60 per cent of T-Mobile US, wants to cut the price agreed for Sprint two years ago because the shares and performance of the company have deteriorated, said two people close to DT. The move is opposed by Sprint’s controlling shareholder, SoftBank of Japan, according to people close to the its chairman Masayoshi Son.
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. Madrid, February 12, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. The review was conducted through a portfolio review in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the ...
Spanish health officials said on Wednesday there was no reason to cancel the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona over coronavirus fears, despite major companies pulling out of the event. National Health Minister Salvador Illa said the government's goal was protecting people's health, but that it would take additional measures if necessary. The assurance came after behind-the-scenes pressure on Spanish authorities to declare that holding the event in Barcelona would pose a public health risk, which could potentially in turn trigger a payout on any event insurance taken out by the organisers.
The organisers of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) said on Wednesday they were monitoring "the fast-changing" development of the coronavirus, in a statement issued after sources said the event in Barcelona was likely to be called off. "We have already implemented additional health measures ahead of MWC 2020 and will continue to seek expert medical advice on a frequent basis," it added.
Telecoms industry lobby GSMA will hold a virtual board meeting on Wednesday to discuss a major conference later this month which is looking increasingly threatened by fears of coronavirus, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Board members of the GSMA will discuss the Barcelona conference by phone at 1300 GMT, according to the person, who declined to be named.
BARCELONA/BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) - The Mobile World Congress (MWC), the annual telecoms industry gathering that draws more than 100,000 visitors to Barcelona, was canceled on Wednesday after a mass exodus by exhibitors due to fears over the coronavirus outbreak. Bowing to the inevitable, the GSMA telecoms association that hosts the get-together said it had canceled the Feb. 24-27 event despite assurances from local and national health officials that it would have been safe to hold it. "The GSMA has canceled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, ...
(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG sold its first Additional Tier 1 bond since 2014 after drawing a flood of orders, as signs of progress in a turnaround bolster the appeal of the high-coupon notes.The German lender priced the $1.25 billion perpetual note at 6%, versus an initial price target of about 6.75%, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak about it. The bonds, callable in October 2025, have an expected B1 rating at Moody’s Investors Service, or four steps below investment grade.The bank received as much as $14 ...
