Tag Archives: Bezeq

Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) today launched Bezeq Free Wi-Fi, a public Wi-Fi service, the first service of its kind in Israel. The new service gives Bezeq customers free unlimited Internet access from smartphones, tablets, and laptops away from home.

Midroog Ltd. today cut its ratings for Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) bonds one grade from Aa1 to Aa2, but raised its outlook from “Negative” to “Stable”. The downgrade affects the company’s four bond series, 5 through 8.
Midroog says, “The downgrade reflects the materialization of the forecast increase in Bezeq’s financial debt and the slowdown in the debt coverage ratio, partly because of the distribution of the special NIS 3 billion dividend in 2011-13 (about half of which has already been distributed), beyond the company’s policy to distribute all its profits as an annual dividend. The downgrade also reflects a rise in risk in the sector and the realization of the main risks in the communications sector on the competition and regulatory side, which have a negative effect on the company’s financial profile.”

“It’s impossible to blame the regulator for companies withdrawing huge sums in dividends instead of investing in infrastructures. First see to the good of customers, and then to the good of shareholders,” said Dov Moran at the “Globes” Media Advertising and Digital (MAD) Conference in Tel Aviv today, in answer to a question about regulation in Israel, and as a rebuke to Bezeq. Moran is the founder and CEO of smart TV developer Comigo Ltd., and was the founder and chairman of msystems, which invented the disk-on-key.