Munich-based industrial holding AURELIUS AG (ISIN: DE000A0JK2A8) has acquired the Business Solutions division (SBC) from the Swiss telecom-conglomerate Sunrise, Zurich. The divestiture is a consequence of Sunrise’s strategy to focus on its carrier core-business and makes way for SBC to develop as an independent solution provider for corporate clients. 

With about 220 employees at the top locations in Berne, Zurich, and Lausanne, SBC generates a turnover of approximately CHF 100m (about EUR 65m) and has positioned itself as a reliable and innovative partner for network integration and network services for Swiss corporate clients and communities.

With AURELIUS AG, Sunrise has found a partner supporting the company’s long term development, pushing the current growth strategy as well as the positioning as one of the leading solution and service providers in Switzerland.

“With SBC, we have found an innovative company preeminently positioned on the Swiss corporate clients’ market with an excellent customer portfolio. It is our aim to make SBC one of the leading providers of so-called integrated communication solutions combining language, data and multimedia-based applications for improving the efficiency of business processes”, says Dr Dirk Markus, CEO of AURELIUS. Although SBC showed a satisfactory development in the past financial year and enjoys a high degree of customer satisfaction, the integration into the Sunrise organization inhibited the realization of growth opportunities. The new independence of the business puts SBC in a position to capitalize on these market opportunities which were not accessible to the same extend as a subsidiary of the Sunrise group.

Nevertheless, SBC will maintain a close cooperation with its former parent company Sunrise and continue on-going commitments without any alteration. This close cooperation is also stressed by Christoph Brand, CEO of Sunrise: “Despite Sunrise’s focus on the Carrier Business, great potential for cooperation still exists – especially with regard to marketing and customer relations. We were also able to substantiate this by signing a cooperation agreement. Apart from that, we are very glad to have found a new shareholder for SBC who provides the company with an attractive perspective for the future.”

The acquisition of Sunrise is conditional to the approval of the Antitrust Authorities. The parties have agreed to keep the purchase price confidential.

SunriseSunrise holds a strong second place in Swiss telecommunications. More than 2.2 million customers use Sunrise services in the mobile telecommunications, fixed network and Internet sectors. The mobile network based on GSM, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA, provides 99% of the population with the most modern mobile services and allows transfer rates of up to 3.6 Mbps. A high-performance fibre-optic network with a total length of more than 8900 km makes it possible to offer extensive coverage for high quality voice and data services. By 2010, Sunrise will be operating its own broadband services in 80% of households. Sunrise is a brand of Sunrise Communications AG, whose share capital is 100% owned by TDC A/S.