SUNRISE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP AG Press Release
Opfikon, 16 February 2021
Strong customer growth momentum for Sunrise and UPC
- Solid operational and commercial performance of both companies in 2020.
- Positive trend in Q4 customer growth of Sunrise and UPC is underpinned by Sunrise's continued customer growth in all segments.
- Continuous growth across all product lines (+172,0001total net adds in 2020), as a result of record sales at both Sunrise and UPC.
- Sunrise and UPC had total net adds of 66,7001 postpaid mobile customers and 29,000 fixed-line RGUs.
- Integration of Sunrise and UPC started successfully, new Executive Committee is in place and integration program is fully on track.
André Krause, CEO of Sunrise UPC, comments on the results: "Despite the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the intensive integration program to combine Sunrise and UPC, both companies have demonstrated the full reliability of their infrastructures and shown strong quarterly results at the same time. Sunrise continued its strong customer growth in all segments, resulting in a YoY Adjusted EBITDA growth of 2.2% and would have perfectly met the range of its former FY'20 shareholder guidance. UPC had its best broadband net adds since 2017 and strongest quarter ever in mobile postpaid net adds. The overall accelerated commercial momentum shown by all these developments and the systematic capitalization on the company's unique strengths promise a strong starting point for the 2021 business year."
Operational trends
The positive trend in Q4 customer growth of Sunrise and UPC is underpinned by Sunrise's continued customer growth in the mobile postpaid (+48,7001), internet (+13,600) and TV (12,300) segments. The same applies to UPC's record sales and a steadily increasing number of mobile customers (+18,000), as well as broadband growth (for the first time since Q2 2017 with +2,000 adds) and the growing business customers segment. In Q4 2020, Sunrise and UPC had total net adds of 66,7001 postpaid mobile customers and 29,000 fixed-line RGUs. At the end of 2020, Sunrise and UPC together had 2.79m mobile customers, 1.18m broadband customers and 1.27m TV customers in Switzerland2.
Highest customer satisfaction ever thanks to investments in infrastructure and innovation
The combined company has the scale to invest even more efficiently and strategically in further customer growth and in next-generation technologies. Combining Switzerland's leading gigabit fibre optic cable network and one of the world's best mobile networks will drive competition and innovation in the Swiss market. The Sunrise mobile network, including a leading 5G performance with up to 1 Gbit/s for more than 90% of the Swiss population and up to 2 Gbit/s in more than 713 cities and towns, remains unbeaten in terms of reliability and speed. The fiber-based UPC Giga network enabled UPC to further expand its position as speed leader in Switzerland. At the end of 2020, UPC customers were surfing at an average internet speed of 369 Mbit/s across all of Switzerland.
In addition to such leading-quality infrastructures, the importance of convergence between fixed and mobile technologies is also driving the record customer satisfaction level, which reached an all-time high for the combined company in the last quarter of 2020. UPC TV (Horizon 4) reached a base of 321,000 customers in Switzerland, representing 54% and 34% of UPC Switzerland's enhanced and total video bases, respectively. The FMC ratio increased by +5% in 2020 to 24% at UPC, while Sunrise contributes with the leading Swiss FMC ratio of more than 70%. The combined convergence rate of Sunrise UPC is at a record high of 53%.
Underlying B2B business continues to grow
Despite restrictions due to Covid-19, Sunrise and UPC generated considerable growth in the B2B segment. New contracts and renewals/upgrades were concluded by Sunrise, for example with the SWISSMEM office (Swiss mechanical and electrical engineering industries) and SIG (Services industriels de Genève). Numerous customer contracts were also newly concluded or extended by UPC with well-known companies such as Basler Versicherung AG, Magazine zum Globus AG and the Zurich Cantonal Police.
Sunrise and UPC support customers in the COVID-19 pandemic
The crisis proved how important stable telco services are, both for the economy and for society as a whole. During the lockdown phases in 2020, 25 Sunrise stores and all UPC stores continued to serve clients, and all people, privately and in their business environment, could rely on an excellent telco infrastructure. Both UPC and Sunrise successfully managed the COVID-19 challenges of 2020, with consistently reliable fixed and mobile network performance during peak demand, as well as by providing customers with additional product upgrades, support and more flexible payment terms.
- UPC upgraded all of its broadband customers to a minimum speed of 100 Mbit/s, while Sunrise removed mobile data limits, both of these actions in order to better facilitate working from home. Both UPC and Sunrise enriched their entertainment offers, including additional free channels for children.
- Both companies further supported SME and SOHO customers, UPC through comprehensive cyber protection and Sunrise with free MS Office 365 / Teams subscriptions. In addition, Sunrise supported an online SME support platform initiated to assist those businesses most affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
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1 Includes both, consumer and B2B subscriptions
2 including B2B; LG consumer+SOHO equivalent is 2.2m mobile subscribers 1.14BB and 1.24TV
Note: Starting with 2021, the results of Sunrise UPC will be presented in consolidated form.
More details on Liberty Global's investors/financials website.
| Provider | Channel | Contact | ||
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Tensid EQS Ltd., Switzerland www.tensid.ch |
newsbox.ch www.newsbox.ch |
Provider/Channel related enquiries marco@tensid.ch +41 41 763 00 50 |
