A significant number of big European operators have now either created towercos or sold their assets, the rest are either midway through the process or discussing their options across the boardroom table. The continent’s second tier players, companies with strong market positions in a single country for example, are following suit and examining the opportunities for their more modest tower portfolios. In this article, TowerXchange rounds up the strategies of the continent’s major operators, discusses their motives and speculates as to how the shape of the market may evolve.
A timeline of tower M&A activity
Whilst tower carve outs and tower sales began in the European market 15+ years ago with deals such as Eircom’s tower sale to Towercom (2007) and KPN’s tower sales to Open Tower Company, Cellnex and Protelindo (2008-2012), momentum only really started to build in 2016, with Cellnex announcing a flurry of deals and Telefonica creating Telxius .
