By Kieron Osmotherly, Founder & CEO, TowerXchange: Since 2012, Cellnex (formerly Abertis Telecom) has acquired 2.5x as many towers as all their competitors combined in large-scale sale and leaseback transactions in Europe. Initially motivated and inspired by the American Tower success story, Cellnex has since stood toe-to-toe to outbid the global tower giant to secure a coveted portfolio of 7,377 towers from VimpelCom’s Italian opco Wind. Those assets have since formed around half of a portfolio brought to market in a landmark IPO on May 7 2015, an IPO which was well received and rewarded with an initial 11% increase, raising Cellnex from an initial valuation of just under €3.25bn
Cellnex IPO a landmark in the emergence of a European tower industry
