Virgin Media O2 announced plans to cut thousands of jobs and slash spending as part of a broader strategy to address investor concerns over its £22 billion debt pile. The UK's second-largest broadband provider stated it would reduce £300 million in staff costs by 2029, representing approximately 30 percent of total expenditure, within a wider £800 million cost-cutting programme. The telecom group, jointly owned by Liberty Global and Telefónica, employs around 16,000 people, though it declined to specify the exact number of job losses.
The move follows a bond sell-off in the summer triggered by fears that intense price competition from small fibre network operators was jeopardizing the company's ability to service its debt. VMO2's safest debt traded at roughly 71 pence in the pound on Monday, down from par earlier this year, while riskier vendor financing notes slipped to around 41 pence. Chief Executive Lutz Schüler defended the.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing