The Netherlands: KPN Leads Corporate Bond Declines in Europe as Issuance Stymied - by John Glover

Royal KPN NV, the Dutch phone company that scrapped its dividend to buy faster wireless networks frequencies, led declines in corporate bonds after it was cut by Fitch Ratings and as issuance stalled in the run-up to the holiday break.

The relative yield on the company’s 700 million euros ($920 million) of 5.625 percent notes due 2024 increased seven basis points to 237 basis points, the most since Nov. 20, according to Bloomberg generic prices, after it bought 1.35 billion euros of frequencies. The last European non-financial company to sell benchmark bonds in the single currency was Telecom Italia SpA (TIT), which priced a 1 billion-euro deal on Dec. 14.

“It’s the end of the year and a lot of investors have shut their books for the year,” said Simon Ballard, a credit strategist at National Australia Bank in London. “Secondary market volumes are very muted, which makes pricing very sensitive to headline risk.”

Read more: KPN Leads Corporate Bond Declines in Europe as Issuance Stymied - Bloomberg

Dutch ISPs refuse to block The Pirate Bay

In a battle reminiscent of the UPC vs the record industry of 2010 and a foreshadow of what may happen in Ireland once a new statutory instrument amending the Copyright Act 2000 is signed into law, two of the largest ISPs in The Netherlands, KPN and T-Mobile, have said they will not be blocking subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. 

This is despite the Court of the Hague ruling two weeks ago that ISPs Ziggo and rival XS4ALL have to block access to The Pirate Bay after a successful case by Hollywood-supported anti-piracy group BREIN.

According to torrent blog TorrentFreak, both KPN and T-Mobile argue that blocking websites is a threat to the open internet.

For more: SOPA in Europe – Dutch ISPs refuse to block The Pirate Bay - New Media - New Media | siliconrepublic.com - Ireland's Technology News Service