Swisscom Lowers Earnings Forecast After Vodafone Italia Deal Completion
Swisscom has finalized its acquisition of Vodafone Italia, leading to a revised earnings outlook for 2024 amid integration costs.
Swisscom, Vodafone Italia, Fastweb, Italy, Telecom
Gdansk: So, Swisscom just wrapped up its buyout of Vodafone Italia. They’re merging it with their Italian arm, Fastweb. Sounds like a big move, right?
But here’s the kicker: they’re expecting to take a hit of up to 200 million euros in costs for 2024 because of this deal. That’s a bummer for their earnings outlook, which they’ve now lowered.
They’re now looking at earnings before interest, taxes, and all that jazz to be around 4.3 to 4.4 billion Swiss francs next year. That’s down from their earlier estimate of 4.5 to 4.6 billion. At least free cash flow won’t be affected, so there’s that!
On the bright side, their revenue, capital expenditures, and dividends are still on track. They’ll share more details about these integration costs when they release their full-year results.
Oh, and the deal, which was worth 8 billion euros, officially closed on December 31 after getting the green light from Italian regulators. Swisscom’s CEO, Christoph Aeschlimann, is pretty excited about it, saying it strengthens the company while keeping their focus on the Swiss market.