The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has cleared - subject to legally binding commitments - the proposed acquisition of Cellnex Ireland Limited and Cignal Infrastructure Limited by Phoenix Tower International.
The €971m deal was first announced last March.
Spain-based Cellnex currently manages around 1,900 mast sites across Ireland and entered the Irish market five years ago when it bought Cignal.
It increased its footprint in 2022 after it acquired the infrastructure portfolio of CK Hutchinson in six countries, including Ireland.
PTI is based in Florida in the US and in 2020 it bought 650 towers owned by the eir-owned Emerald Tower for a reported €300m.
In a statement today, the CCPC said that after an extended preliminary investigation, it had determined last July that a full investigation was required to establish if the proposed transaction would lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the State.
During its investigation, the CCPC identified potential competition concerns relating to the supply of hosting services on macro passive network infrastructure sites in the State.
Passive infrastructure, which includes towers or masts, is crucial for mobile network operators and other electronic communications service providers. Mobile operators fix active network equipment to it, including antennae and dishes.
The CCPC said its potential concerns included an increase in market concentration through the loss of close competition between Phoenix and Cellnex resulting in higher prices and/or lower service quality for their customers and, ultimately, end users of mobile networks.
To address these potential concerns, Phoenix made a number of binding commitments to the CCPC.
These commitments include the divestment of sites in areas where the effect of the deal would be to reduce the number of competitors offering hosting services on macro passive infrastructure from three to two or from two to one.
The commitments also include a provision to divest new sites to be developed within the same areas, where the new sites are part of an existing agreement between the merging parties and a mobile network operator.
The CCPC said that after detailed examination, and having taken into account the commitments given by Phoenix, it believes the proposed acquisition will not substantially lessen competition and, as a result, can be put into effect.
