Stock price when the opinion was issued
These were very, very cheap stocks from a European context and have been running up. A big issue is that there are way too many telecoms in Europe. Because they are big companies and viewed as important, mergers are not allowed very easily. Lack of consolidation has been the difficult part. Stocks are very cheap and they pay very good yield.
Share performance recently lagging, however performance strong all year.
Slowly growing with stable dividend.
Concerns for competition from the USA not a big worry.
CAPEX expected to come down which will help cash flow.
Expecting more increased dividends & more share buy backs.
It is the German telecom player. They own a big asset in the US. The telecom sector in Europe has had a very difficult time with too many players. There is an issue with how they price data and in how they get LTE licenses. They have to do a lot of capital expenditure. It looks cheap but there are a few things that have to happen for prices to go up. About 8% yield.