Virgin Media O2’s owners are looking to drive cost cuts of £600 million ($810m) at the UK telco.. As reported by the Financial Times, the company’s main shareholders, Liberty Global and Telefónica, are pushing to make the cuts in an effort to ease investor concerns about the company’s debt pile.. – VM02.
The FT, which cites sources familiar with the matter, reports that the cost cuts could come through a mixture of job cuts and reductions in operating and capital expenditure.. It comes after Virgin Media O2 was hit by a sell-off in its bonds over the summer, with the sell-off putting pressure on the company’s £1.1 billion ($1.49bn) of senior unsecured debt, pushing the price of a $925 million bond down to 61 cents on the dollar on Thursday.
At the start of July, it was trading at about 78 cents.. Investors in the telco have become concerned about Virgin Media O2’s ability to service its £22bn ($29.7bn) debt.. A previous FT report over the summer noted that Virgin Media O2’s owners have mulled other options to reduce the debt, which has included plans to cut its £200m ($270m)..
The company has been busy building out its mobile and full fiber networks in recent years, with the latter market being particularly competitive against Openreach and a host of alternative network providers (altnets).. The telco has previously shed jobs in the years after its merger was completed, with around 2,000 jobs cut in 2023, while earlier this year it was reported that up to 300 jobs in the UK were being lost..
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