Phoenix Tower International (PTI) is adding around 1,900 mobile telecommunication sites in Ireland to its portfolio through the acquisition of Cellnex Telecom’s €971m Irish business.
Blackstone-backed PTI has agreed to acquire Cellnex Ireland and Cignal Infrastructure, a deal that will boost PTI’s Irish business with an additional 1,700 mobile telecom sites and roughly 200 land locations suitable for hosting third-party wireless sites.
Following the deal and contracted deployments, PTI will own and operate over 29,000 telecom towers throughout Europe, the US, Latin America and the Caribbean. PTI’s European presence includes countries like France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Malta and Cyprus.
Dagan Kasavana, CEO of PTI, said: “We are delighted to announce this strategic transaction with Cellnex after a successful transaction in France which signifies 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.”
Cellnex CEO Marco Patuano said: “The sale of our business in Ireland – at an appropriate valuation – is one further step within the company’s next chapter, in line with our strategy, to achieve the goal of consolidating, simplifying our corporate structure and focusing our efforts in the existing growth opportunities in the main markets in which we operate.”
The latest transaction follows Stonepeak’s acquisition of a 49% stake in Cellnex Telecom’s Nordics business for €730m in September last year.
At the time, Cellnex said it would use the proceeds from the transaction to reduce its debt, in line with the “objectives set in November 2022 which prioritise organic growth and achieving an investment-grade credit rating by S&P”.
Cellnex, which is Europe’s largest operator of towers and telecom infrastructures, manages a portfolio of over 138,000 sites, including planned rollouts up to 2030, across 12 European countries, with a significant presence in Spain, France, the UK, Italy, and Poland.
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