Liberty Global has confirmed that its plans to spin-off Swiss telco Sunrise remain on track for Q4 this year.

The company made the announcement during its second-quarter earnings, noting that it will host a Capital Markets Day in Zurich on September 9.

Earlier this year, Liberty Global announced that it would spin off Sunrise to shareholders on the SIX Swiss exchange later this year.

The company said the move would "allow shareholders to fully participate in the future growth and upside of both Sunrise and Liberty Global."

A deal could value Sunrise, the second-largest carrier in Switzerland, at around $8.91bn.

For the quarter, Liberty Global reported a revenue increase of 1.4 percent year-on-year (YoY) on a reported basis and 2.2 percent on a rebased basis to $1.87 billion.

The company said that net earnings (loss) for Q2 increased by 153.8 percent YoY on a reported basis to $275.2 million.

Revenue for Sunrise remained flat for the quarter, at $815.8m.

Fiber progress

Liberty Global, which is also the parent company of other telcos including Virgin Media O2, Telenet, and VodafoneZiggo, said it made significant progress on its fixed and mobile network strategies including fiber deployments in the UK, Belgium, and Ireland.

"Against a highly competitive backdrop in the UK our strategy of focusing on value over volume, as well as successful implementation of the price rise, supported a recovery in fixed ARPU," said Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries.

"In Switzerland, we're continuing to build operating momentum in both the main brand and flanker brands, supporting continued growth in broadband net adds and strong growth in mobile postpaid. We delivered a standout performance in the Netherlands during the quarter, supported by the fixed price rise and solid growth in mobile and B2B."

Belgian telco Telenet reported a slight decline in revenue of 1.6 percent YoY for the quarter, while Dutch carrier VodafoneZiggo performed slightly better, with revenue up 0.3 percent YoY.

Virgin Media O2 challenges

Liberty Global also pointed towards a network sharing agreement signed earlier this month by Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone in the UK, due to run for the next decade.

The agreement includes plans for Virgin Media O2 to acquire spectrum from Vodafone, which could help the latter gain regulatory approval for its merger with Three.

The merger is set to create the UK's biggest telco, but has been welcomed by Lutz Schüler, CEO of Virgin Media O2.

"Looking ahead, our new network sharing agreement with Vodafone UK builds on the success of our existing relationship and also keeps Virgin Media O2 in a strong position should the Vodafone-Three merger be approved – an outcome we support and believe would be a positive step for investment in the UK’s digital infrastructure," he said.

However, the company did acknowledge the challenges of the UK market and has updated its guidance metrics for Virgin Media O2, moving it from 'stable to decline' to 'low to mid-single-digit decline'. It put this down to "continued pressure on low-margin mobile hardware revenues."

For mobile, Virgin Media O2 reported a postpaid base decline of 118,400 in Q2, but did state that its 5G network coverage spans almost two-thirds of the country.

By the end of Q2, Virgin Media O2 reached five million premises with its full fiber rollout, which it noted had been boosted on behalf of Nexfibre. Nexfibre is a joint venture formed of investors from InfraVia Capital Partners, Liberty Global, and Telefónica.