The acquisitions are the biggest ever for Cellnex extending its footprint in Italy, the UK and Ireland, and entering Austria, Sweden and Denmark as new markets.
The six transactions involve the acquisition of about 24,600 sites for a total of €10 billion: €8.6 billion in cash and €1.4 billion in the form of new Cellnex shares, representing a stake of about 5% in Cellnex’s capital.
The transaction takes into consideration the roll-out of up to 5,250 new sites over the next eight years with an associated investment of up to €1.4 billion.
On completion, Cellnex will have about 103,000 towers and telecommunications sites in Europe.
At the end of the first half of this year, Cellnex had 40,505 operational sites across Europe, and 2,090 small cell and distributed antenna systems.
Transformational nature
Cellnex’s Chairman, Franco Bernabè, noted, “the transformational nature of the agreements, which strengthens Cellnex’s position as one of the main Europe-wide telecommunications infrastructures operator, with a portfolio of about 103,000 sites once the transactions and rollouts are complete.
We will now be present in three new significant markets – Sweden, Austria and Denmark – and will further build upon our role as a key operator in three of our core markets, namely Italy, the UK and Ireland.”
Cellnex CEO Tobias Martinez added that, “It is also worth noting the strategic and transformational dimension of this combined agreements, which reinforce the concept of partnership with our customers and opens up new opportunities and approaches for collaboration, such as holding a minority stake in Cellnex while preserving the group’s management and governance neutrality and independence”.
He continued, “The high density and capillarity of Cellnex’s network of sites, now in 12 European markets and crossing the threshold of 100,000 telecom sites, further highlights the differentiated added value of our company as a natural partner for all mobile operators in Europe to complement their capabilities in rolling out 4G and accelerating the 5G deployment.”
Key facts and figures
• 8,900 of the total of 24,600 sites to be acquired are located in Italy; interests in or deriving from 6,000 sites in the UK; 1,150 in Ireland; 2,650 in Sweden;
• 1,400 in Denmark; and 4,500 in Austria.
• Regarding the expectation to build up to 5,250 additional sites over the next eight years, there is an expectation of 1,100 new sites in Italy, 600 in the UK, 100 in Ireland, 2,550 in Sweden, 500 in Denmark and 400 in Austria.