The opening salvos have been exchanged in the battle for leadership of the French tower market. TDF entered into an agreement to acquire competitive broadcast infrastructure provider ITAS TIM, and their 420 towers, for a reported €100mn. While TDF currently has market leadership, with 20% of France’s ground based telecom towers, pan-European tower giant Cellnex countered by agreeing the acquisition of an initial 230 towers from Bouygues Telecom at a 13.8x adjusted EV/EBITDA valuation. With teasers out for the sale of FPS Towers and their 2,482 towers, let battle commence for the French tower market!
France is one of Europe’s most investible tower markets, and the sale of the pivotal FPS Towers portfolio will be critical to the shape of the market in the next five years.
