"We are not considering at all getting out," Christoph Vilanek told Reuters on Friday. Freenet is Sunrise's biggest shareholder with a stake of 24.5%, and opposes the UPC deal as overpriced and disadvantageous to existing shareholders.

"No matter what happens (with the capital increase), we will look at changing our position there only in 2021," he said.

Freenet had expressed interest in the past in selling its stake if it got the right price.

Sunrise has announced plans for a 4.1 billion franc rights issue that shareholder have to approve at an extraordinary meeting slated for Oct. 23.

Should the measure go through, Freenet did not want to have its stake completely diluted and could take up some of the new shares, Vilanek said. "We have money ready," he said.

(Reporting by Angelika Gruber, Editing by Michael Shields)