LONDON (ShareCast) - Shares of Dutch telecom KPN received a beating on Monday after a higher-than-expected price for bandwidth prompted the firm to cancel its dividend and cut its payout next year.

KPN paid €1.352bn to secure 120MHz of spectrum at a government auction to obtain licences for 4G mobile networks, much higher than the predicted price tag of around €500m.

As such, the company said that it would not pay a final dividend in 2012, and would pay just three cents per share in 2013, compared to the 35 cents-a-share payout promised in its third-quarter results.

In a separate matter, KPN sold Spanish virtual network operator Simyo, which has some 380,000 users, to Orange España of France Telecom.

Orange will keep the users under the Simyo brand and maintain the same mobile price structure. The deal will boost Orange's customer base to 12.2m, improving its competitive position in Spain, the company's second-largest market.

KPN was down 13.07% at €4.03 by 12:10 in Amsterdam.

KPN’s shares were pressured lower after HSBC downgraded the stock to ‘underweight’ from ‘neutral’ and lowered the price target to €4 from €8.70. Nomura also pared its price target from €5.40 to €4.70, reiterating its ‘neutral’ recommendation.

CP

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