Com Hem Holding AB announces proposed share redemption, buy-back programme and a 2015 dividend

Com Hem Holding AB (”Com Hem” or “Company”) today announces that the Board of Directors has decided on a number of measures aimed at increasing the shareholder returns. The decisions are made on the back of the company’s strong performance, transformed balance sheet and reduced interest payments going forward. This can be achieved while investing in our business to deliver our operational plan, servicing our debt and remaining within our leverage target.  

The Board of Directors has decided to:

• Propose a one time share redemption programme amounting to approximately SEK 500m, to be decided at an extraordinary general meeting ("EGM"). The EGM is planned for 10 March 2015 and a notice will be distributed on 12 February 2015
• Propose a share buy-back programme of up to SEK 1 000m in the form of a buy-back mandate for the Board during the time until the next annual general meeting, to be decided at the annual general meeting on 21 May 2015. The Board's intention is to propose a buy-back programme of this magnitude on an annual basis.
• Propose a dividend of 1 SEK per share for 2015 to be decided by the AGM.

”These proposals prove our commitment to deliver attractive returns to our shareholders while maintaining sufficient financial flexibility to support the company’s growth ambitions. We are confident Com Hem will continue to generate strong cash flows going forward on the back of further operational improvement, reduced interest costs and healthy growth”, said Andrew Barron, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Com Hem.

”Since listing, Com Hem’s operational and financial performance has been strong. Important KPI:s such as churn and customer intake have improved and when considering the full year, we have reduced debt by SEK 5.7bn and lowered our cash interest payments by SEK 500m per year. Com Hem is now a robust business which will be highly a highly cash generative, as made evident by the Q4 report, and we can therefore distribute excess cash to shareholders while investing to deliver our operational plan, servicing our debt and remaining within our leverage target”, said Anders Nilsson, Chief Executive Officer at Com Hem.

The conditions of the proposed redemption programme will be announced in the invitation for the EGM, to be distributed on 12 February 2015.

LionTree Advisors is acting as financial advisor to Com Hem.

For queries, please contact:

Fredrik Hallstan, Head of PR
Tel: +46(0)761 15 38 30
press@comhem.com

Carolina Haglund Strömlid, Head of Investor Relations
Tel: +46(0)708 80 71 73
investor.relations@comhem.com

Com Hem Holding AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Swedish Securities Markets Act (2007:528) and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act (1991:980). The information was submitted for publication on 10 February 2015 at 07:29 CET.

About Com Hem

Com Hem is one of Sweden’s leading suppliers of high-speed broadband, television and fixed-telephony. Approximately 40% of Sweden’s households are connected to Com Hem’s network, with access to the market’s broadest range of television services. Com Hem offers broadband speeds up to 500 Mbps to 1.6 million households which is more than any other operator. Since 2013 Com Hem has a competitive B2B-offer of broadband and telephony services. Com Hem was founded in 1983, has approximately 1,100 employees and its head office is in Stockholm. Operations are run through three subsidiaries; Com Hem AB, Phonera Företag AB and ITUX Communication AB. Com Hem’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. For more information, visit: www.comhemgroup.com.

Disclaimer
Matters discussed in this announcement may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intends,” “estimate,” “will,” “may,” “continue,” “should” and similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions.

Although Com Hem believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond its control. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this release by such forward-looking statements.

The information, opinions and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement speak only as at its date, and are subject to change without notice.