Spanish mobile phone mast operator Cellnex has today announced its biggest purchase to date with a deal to buy 24,600 telecom towers across Europe from Hong Kong's CK Hutchison for €10 billion.
Cellnex said it expects the deal to boost its annual revenues by around €1.2 billion through the deal.
It is also planning a further investment of up to €1.4 billion on as many as 5,250 new sites.
Since listing in 2015, the Barcelona-based firm has grown rapidly, buying up assets which have retained their appeal for investors despite the coronavirus crisis, thanks to their steady cash flows.
It will pay €8.6 billion euros in cash and issue €1.4 billion in new shares which will give the ports-to-telecoms group a 5% stake in Cellnex.
The deal covers assets in Ireland, Italy and the UK, where Cellnex already operates, and marks its entry into Austria, Sweden and Denmark.
It will leave Cellnex with 103,000 towers and telecommunications sites, including 1,771 in Ireland.
Rolling out next-generation 5G Internet in the coming years will require more masts to connect billions of devices in an "Internet of Things" which is likely to ensure continued investment in the sector.
Cellnex Telecom has invested over €10m in new telecommunications infrastructure in its first year in the Irish market with the remaining additional investment on the enhancement of existing sites.
Since Cellnex completed the acquisition of Cignal in September 2019, it has built over 100 new telecom sites across all the 26 counties of the country, with 80% of these enabled with fibre infrastructure.
