Cellnex has reached an agreement with Iliad to acquire a 60% controlling stake in the company that will operate Play’s c. 7,000 telecommunications sites in Poland. Iliad launched a takeover bid for Play —agreed with its two main shareholders— on 21st September and is expected to complete it by the end of November. The agreement between Iliad and Cellnex is expected to be closed by Q2 2021. Cellnex will invest c. EUR 800m in acquiring the 60% stake, while the remaining 40% will continue to be owned by Play (Iliad) in line with the model that Cellnex and Iliad previously agreed for the sites formerly operated by Free (Iliad) in France. Cellnex will finance the transaction with available cash.
The new Polish telecommunications tower company could invest up to c. EUR 1.3bn over the next 10 years in rolling out up to c. 5,000 new sites.
Estimated additional EBITDA –under IFRS16 standard and once both the initial acquisition and the roll-out of the new sites have been completed– will be EUR 220m. Additionally, the backlog of contracted sales will increase by c. EUR 6bn to EUR 53bn.
As a result, Cellnex will have 73,000 sites in nine countries.
AZ Capital
Advised in the sale of
7,000 telecommunication sites (Play, 60% controlling stake)
to