Cellnex announced on Friday 28 February that is had closed its deal with Phoenix Tower International to sell 100% of its Irish business for approximately €971 million, as originally announced nearly a year ago on 5 March 2024. In early February the deal was cleared by the competition commission and now the deal is complete.
Cellnex has been operating in Ireland since 2019, when it acquired tower and site operator Cignal, subsequently increasing its footprint in 2020 as a result of the agreement with CK Hutchison to acquire its infrastructure portfolio in six European countries, including Ireland. At that time, Cellnex was managing around 2,000 sites in the country.
Phoenix Tower International entered Ireland on 25 May 2020, after stirking a deal with Irish MNO eir for their portfolio of 650 sites for €300mn. The deal, which also included a significant build-to-suit commitment. The transaction added a second European country to PTI’s portfolio as the towerco struck out to expand its presence beyond the Americas.
TowerXchange now estimates that Phoenix Tower International owns 2,982 of Ireland's 5,979 sites, ahead of Vantage Towers with 1,300 and a long tail of middle market towercos that between them own 1,697 sites.
Linking the deal to his promises to shareholders, Marco Patuano, CEO of Cellnex, said “next Monday, as we announced in our results presentation, the share buyback program of up to €800 million will start as the first step in our unequivocal commitment to remunerating our shareholders. It will be a fundamental moment in Cellnex history”. Thus almost immediately the capital raised in the deal will be returned to shareholders.
Dagan Kasavana, CEO of PTI, said, "We are delighted to have completed this strategic transaction which represents a significant step forward in Phoenix Tower International's expansion in Europe. This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to Ireland, and we are eager to contribute to the development of robust and advanced telecommunications infrastructure that will benefit both the Irish people and our valued Mobile Network Operator partners. We were happy to work with the professionals at Cellnex and the Irish regulatory authorities to consummate this transaction."
With current and contracted sites PTI will own and operate over 29,000 telecom towers throughout Europe, the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. In Europe, Ireland is now PTI's second largest market by site count, behind only Germany. PTI is also active in France, Italy, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus.
