Sunrise suspects Freenet and considers complaint
Showdown before the extraordinary Sunrise general meeting at which the UPC acquisition will be decided: The telecom company suspects major shareholder Freenet of having violated stock exchange law.
The German company Freenet holds around 25 percent of Sunrise shares and is one of the most vehement opponents of the UPC takeover. CEO Christoph Vilanek has been opposed from the start Opposed to the purchasebecause it does not correspond to the market logic and is far too expensive. His main argument: 5G will make the UPC cables superfluous anyway - the purchase therefore makes little sense in his view.
For a long time, it looked as if Freenet would be able to prevent the purchase. Then other major shareholders came forward to side with Sunrise - the outcome of the AGM was thus open again.
More on the showdown before the Annual General Meeting
In the meantime, the wind has changed again: It does not look good for Sunrise's plans to take over UPC. As the SonntagsZeitung writes, Freenet is said to have brought a number of small shareholders over to its own side. Freenet CEO Vilanek is said to have persuaded investors to buy into Sunrise - with shares that are not subject to reporting requirements. The newspaper refers to information from the stock market information service Platow-Brief. Towards the SonntagsZeitung Freenet could not be reached for comment.
Investor group would have to be reported to the stock exchange
At Sunrise, there is a suspicion that Freenet forms a group together with the smaller investors. If shareholders organize themselves - by contract or other means - the group must actually be reported to the stock exchange. This is what the Stock Exchange Act stipulates.
No such notification was made in the case of Freenet. Sunrise is therefore considering calling in Finma to clarify whether the Stock Exchange Act has been violated. Whether the company ignites this "escalation stage" will be decided these days, writes the SonntagsZeitung.
Unexpected turn?
If the group had managed to exceed the 33.3 percent shareholding limit, it should have reported that as well. And the newspaper points out another interesting point: Under stock exchange law, anyone who acquires more than one-third of all shares must make a public offer for all shares in the company. So shortly before the showdown at the annual general meeting, the Sunrise/UPC case could take a completely unexpected turn.
