TowerXchange’s who’s who in Europe towers - 2022 edition

1&1: New MNO market entrant in Germany, 1&1 plans to roll out its network based on Open RAN technology, partnering with Japanese MNO, Rakuten, to leverage its expertise.

2rn: Irish broadcast towerco with around 150 towers, some of which are used by telecom clients 

3GIS: Operates a shared network between Telenor and 3 (Hi3G) in Sweden. 3GIS is in the process of being wound down as 3G networks are retired in the country. 

3i: A mid-market infrastructure investor, 3i upped their investment in ambitious UK towerco Wireless Infrastructure Group before reaching a deal to sell their shareholding to Brookfield in late 2019. They also bid unsuccessfully for French towerco FPS in 2016. 

4iG: Hungarian ICT service group which owns Antenna Hungaria (which in turn has a 25% stake in MNO Yettel) and is the process of acquiring Hungarian MNO, DIGI. 

 

A 

ABP Investments: Dutch pension fund ABP acquired 75% of Dutch towerco, Open Tower Company in 2017. 

Alecta: Swedish pension fund which owns a stake in Telia’s tower businesses in Norway, Finland and Sweden 

Alinda Capital Partners: Infrastructure investor which owns Polish broadcast and telecoms towerco Emitel. In early 2022, Alinda reached a deal to sell Emitel to Cordiant Digital Infrastructure. 

Allianz Capital Partners: Asset Manager with a focus on private equity, infrastructure and renewable energy. Allianz Capital Partners acquired a 10% stake in ATC Europe in June 2021. 

Altice: Mobile network operator with a presence in France and Portugal (as well as Israel and the Dominican Republic). In France, Altice carved out their towers into a captive towerco, Hivory, in which they sold a 49.99% stake to KKR. Hivory has subsequently been sold to Cellnex. In Portugal, Altice carved their towers into OMTEL, with OMTEL since 100% acquired by Cellnex 

Alticom: Dutch towerco which was acquired by Cellnex 

American Tower: The world’s largest independent towerco with a portfolio of just under 220,000 sites. In Europe, American Tower’s sites are held by ATC Europe, in which American Tower has a 60% share, with CDPQ and Allianz Capital Partners having 30% and 10% shares respectively. ATC Europe has a portfolio of 30,041 sites (Q4’21), and a presence in France, Germany, Poland and Spain.    

American Tower first entered the European market through the acquisition of 2,031 sites from KPN in Germany. The company entered the French market in 2016 through the acquisition of Antin Infrastructure Partners’, FPS Towers. The towerco however gained significant scale following the acquisition of Telefónica’s Telxius (the deal having closed in 2021). American Tower has a keen appetite for other tower portfolios and is reportedly involved in a number of active processes.  

AMP Capital: AMP is a global investment manager headquartered in Australia. They own Irish towerco, Towercom, and formerly owned Spanish broadcast and telecoms towerco, Axion (which they sold in 2021). AMP had also been linked to Finnish towerco, Digita, prior to the towerco being acquired by DigitalBridge. 

Antenna Hungaria: Hungarian broadcast towerco which also sells co-locations to and provides installation and maintenance services to telecom clients. The company was owned by TDF prior to it being re-nationalised. In August 2021, Hungarian ICT service group 4iG reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in the state-owned infraco. Antenna Hungaria also owns Hungarian operator, Digi, as well as a 25% stake in Yettel (formerly Telenor Hungary) and CETIN (the infraco carved out from Telenor). Outside of Hungary, Antenna Hungaria owns MNO One in Albania and Montenegro.

Antin Infrastructure Partners: Antin is a private equity firm focussed on infrastructure investments. Antin sold French towerco FPS to American Tower in 2016 and Spanish towerco Axion to AMP Capital in 2017. Antin have investments in the fibre and data centre space in Europe and are believed to retain an appetite for further opportunities in towers. 

APG Asset Management: Dutch Asset Manager APG forms part of the consortium which owns French broadcast towerco, TDF. 

Arcus Infrastructure Partners: Arcus forms part of the consortium, led by Brookfield, which owns French towerco TDF. In 2016, Arcus sold UK-based towerco, Shere Group, to Cellnex for €393mn. The investor was also linked to a consortium interested in buying Arqiva prior to Arqiva reaching a deal with Cellnex for the sale of their telecoms division. 

Ardian: Private investment house which recently acquired 100% of Míla, the infrastructure arm of  incumbent Icelandic operator, Síminn. Ardian also currently leads an investment consortium which owns a 49% stake of Daphne 3, a holding company which in turn owns 30.2% of Italian towerco INWIT.  The Ardian-led consortium recently made an offer to acquire the majority shareholding of Daphne 3. 

Asterion Industrial Partners (AIP): Investment firm focussedon the European mid-market infrastructure space. AIP owns Spanish towerco, Axion. 

ATC Europe: American Tower’s European business (see American Tower) 

Atlas Tower Group: Towerco with a presence in the US, South Africa and Kenya which is also now focussing on the European market, with a particular interest in the Iberian peninsula 

Axion: Spanish broadcast towerco which owns a portfolio of 635 sites. As well as being active in the DAS space, Axion has also formed Axent, a joint venture with Enagás to commercial over 4,600km of fibre. In 2021, Axion was acquired by Asterion Industrial Partners. 

Azerconnect: Infrastructure sharing business in Azerbaijan. 

 

B 

BAI Communications: Global communications infrastructure provider active in the UK, Ireland and Italy (as well as Canada, the US, Hong Kong and Australia). The company offers a wealth of solutions including towers, fibre, in-building solutions, public transport networks and private networks.  

Berkshire Partners: Berkshire backed Crown Castle during their successful foray into European towers in the late nineties, and currently has active investments in Protelindo (the largest towerco in Indonesia which had a small footprint in the Netherlands until their Dutch towers were sold to Cellnex in 2016) and Tower Development Corporation in the US and Puerto Rico. 

Bite: Latvian and Lithuanian MNO, which has formed active and passive infrastructure sharing joint ventures with Tele2 in the country.

Blackstone: One of the world’s largest asset managers and a serial towerco investor which recently increased its shareholding in Phoenix Tower Interntional. 

Bouygues Telecom: French MNO which was one of Europe’s first MNOs to sell towers to an independent towerco, selling 2,166 of their estimated 17,000 towers to Antin’s FPS Towers in 2012 for €185mn. In 2016 they sold 500 towers to Cellnex for a total of €147mn; in February 2017 they signed a deal with the aforementioned governing the transfer of 1,800 urban sites and 1,200 new build towers for a total of €854mn; later the same year they signed a further deal with Cellnex transferring a further 600 sites for €170mn. In December 2018, the operator deepened their relationship with Cellnex, signing an agreement for the towerco to provide distributed processing capabilities (edge computing) at 88 strategic telecom centres. Bouygues Telecom has also formed a joint venture with Phoenix Tower to deploy 4,000 new sites in France.  

Britannia Towers / Hibernian Towers/ Ulstercom: Privately owned towerco with 60 towers in Great Britain under the Britannia brand, 60 towers in Ireland under Hibernian and a further 20 towers in Northern Ireland under Ulstercom. 

Brookfield: Major infrastructure investor whose investments in European towers include Wireless Infrastructure Group (in the UK & Ireland), Telia Towers (in Norway, Finland and Sweden) and TDF (in France). Further afield, Brookfield owns Indian towerco, Summit Digitel and has other interests in the digital infrastructure asset class. 

BuyIn: A 50/50 procurement joint venture between Deutsche Telekom and Orange with an annual budget of €28bn across network technology and other telecom equipment categories. 

 

C 

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ): Global investment group managing funds for public retirement and insurance plans . CDPQ acquired a 30% stake in ATC Europe in May 2021.  

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB):  Pension fund which manages the pensions of over 20 million Canadians. Their telecoms infrastructure portfolio includes BAI Communications, with CPPIB also being the largest shareholder in Arqiva (whose telecoms division has been sold to Cellnex). CPPIB have been linked to a number of other major tower transactions globally.  

Canson Capital Partners: Investment firm which owns a 3% stake in Italian towerco, INWIT 

Cellnex: Europe’s largest towerco with a portfolio of over 100,000 sites spread across 12 markets. The company has completed a wealth of M&A deals across the continent, acquiring the tower portfolios of many key MNOs whilst also rolling up smaller towercos in the market. As well as being Europe’s largest towerco, Cellnex is one of Europe’s most innovative and has continued to expand its service offerings in areas such as IBS, fibre, private networks, edge computing and active infrastructure. 

Centuria: Network sharing joint venture formed between Bite and Tele2 in Latvia and Lithuania. Centuria covers active and passive network sharing and all technologies from 2G to 5G. 

České Radiokomunikace: Czech Broadcast towerco, which owns around 800 towers. Macquarie agreed the sale of České Radiokomunikace to Cordiant Digital Infrastructure in May 2021. 

CETIN: Infraco carved out of PPF Group’s telecom business in Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia. CETIN’s remit extends much beyond towers, with CETIN taking ownership of the operator’s metallic cable pairs, fibre and indoor and outdoor base stations. In late 2021, PPF announced the sale of a 30% stake in CETIN to Singapore’s GIC investment fund. 

CK Hutchison: Mobile network operator, operating under the 3 brand in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Ireland and under the brand Wind Tre in Italy (and also with a presence in Hong Kong and Indonesia). CK Hutchison has sold its European tower portfolio to Cellnex, with all but the UK portion of the deal now closed. When the UK portion of the deal closes, Hutchison will acquire €1.4bn in new Cellnex shares (equivalent to a 5% stake in the company). 

Communications Infrastructure Fund: Dutch investment fund with long-term investments in telecommunication infrastructure including antenna sites, cable and optical fibre infrastructure, data centres and related assets. The fund owned 75% of Open Tower Company with NOVEC until late 2017. 

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure: Investor with a focus on digital infrastructure assets in Europe and North America. In 2021, Cordiant reached a deal to acquire Czech broadcast towerco České Radiokomunikace  from Macquarie. In early 2022, Cordiant reached a deal to acquire Polish telecom and broadcast towerco, Emitel, from Alinda Capital Partners. 

Cornerstone: Formerly known as CTIL, Cornerstone is a 50:50 joint venture between Vodafone and VM-O2 (Liberty Global-Telefónica) in the UK which manages the two operator’s combined tower portfolio of 14,200 sites. In early 2021, Vodafone and Telefónica announced the commercialisation of Cornerstone, entering into long term MSAs with Cornerstone (with Cornerstone becoming the preferred supplier of new sites for the two operators). Vodafone has transferred its 50% interest in Cornerstone to its towerco, Vantage Towers. A sale of VM-O2's stake in the towerco looks to be on the cards, with VM-O2 seeing an opportunity to raise funds for its fibre rollout. 

CVC Capital Partners: CVC is a private equity firm which invested in Abertis (subsequently carving out Cellnex via IPO in 2015) from 2010 to 2015 and has since been linked to several other telecoms infrastructure sales in Europe, including bidding for a stake in Telefónica’s Telxius. 

 

D 

Deutsche Funkturm: Towerco formed from the carve out of Deutsche Telekom’s German assets back in 2002. Deutsche Funkturm (DFMG) manages a portfolio of 33,600 sites of which 550 are high towers, c. 9,450 masts, c. 16,700 rooftops, 3,250 special sites and 3,650 resell sites. DFMG is held under Deutsche Telekom’s GD Towers unit, alongside their newly created Austrian towerco, Magenta T-Infra, with DFMG helping to steer the new entity. Deutsche Telekom has kicked off a sale process for GD Towers. 

Deutsche Telekom: Major European operator (also trading under the T-Mobile and Magenta Telekom brands) with a presence in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia (as well as direct and indirect investments in Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro and Noth Macedonia). Deutsche Telekom carved out its German towers into Deutsche Funkturm in 2002, and carved out its Austrian towers into Magenta T-Infra in 2021. Both towercos are held under the GD Towers business unit, with Deutsche Telekom having kicked off a sale process for the unit. Deutsche Telekom’s preference is to retain a stake in the tower business whilst deconsolidating the asset from its balance sheet.  

Deutsche Telekom has begun the process of carving out its towers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but these are not included in any current monetisation plans. 

In the Netherlands, Deutsche Telekom’s towers have been merged with Cellnex’ Netherlands’ portfolio, with Cellnex and Deutsche Telekom creating a new investment fund, Digital Infrastructure Vehicle which holds a 38% stake of Cellnex Netherlands as its seed asset. DIV plans to seek third party investment and invest in other digital infrastructure. 

In Poland, T-Mobile’s towers are managed through a JV with Orange (NetWorkS!) 

Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners: Investment firm with an interest in the European digital infrastructure asset class. DTCP has a stake in Cellnex Netherlands as well as fibreco, Open Dutch Fibre. DTCP was part of the Cellnex-led investment consortium that bought Sunrise’s towers in Swizerland, although Cellnex has since acquired DTCP’s stake. 

Digea: Greek broadcast towerco with 156 sites. 

DIGI: Hungarian MNO in the process of being acquired by 4iG. Rumours suggest that DIGI has begun to explore the sale of its tower assets.  

Digita: Owner and operator of the premier, nationwide terrestrial television and radio network in Finland and the largest independent owner of telecom towers in the country. Digita is owned by DigitalBridge.  

Digital Infrastructure Vehicle: Investment fund formed by Cellnex and Deutsche Telekom, which holds a 38% stake in Cellnex Netherlands as its seed asset. DIV plans to seek third party investment and invest in other digital infrastructure. 

Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited (DMSL): Joint venture of all four UK MNOs which manages and runs the UK’s Shared Rural Network programme 

DigitalBridge: DigitalBridge is a leading global digital infrastructure REIT with investments spanning the digital ecosystem including towers, data centres, fibre, small cells, and edge infrastructure. DigitalBridge’s investments in the European tower space include Digita (Finland), ÍslandsTurnar (Iceland), Vantage Towers (regional) and digital infraco Freshwave (UK and Germany). The company has also just signed a deal to acquire Telenet’s towers in Belgium. Further afield DigitalBridge’s towerco investments include Vertical Bridge (US), Mexico Tower Partners (Mexico), Andean Telecom Partners (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru). 

DNA Tower: Telenor’s Finnish towerco business unit (see Telenor and Telenor Tower Holding) 

 

E 

EE: UK MNO owned by BT since 2015. EE’s towers are held in a joint venture infraco, MBNL, with Hutchison’s 3. 

EI Towers: Italian broadcast towerco which sold its towerco business, Towertel to Phoenix Tower International in 2020. As part of the deal, Phoenix Tower secured the rights to market and lease 1,600 of EI Towers’ 2,300 broadcast sites. In addition to a boradcast tower portfolio, EI Towers owns 6,000km of fibre optic backbone. 

Emitel: Polish telecom and broadcast towerco with a portfolio of 521 sites. Emitel is in the process of being acquired by Cordiant Digital Infrastructure. 

ERT: Greek national broadcaster which owns a portfolio of around 400 sites 

ESB Telecoms: Subsidiary of Irish National power company ESB Networks developed to operate telecom sites. Most of their sites, which total around 400, are in substations. 

ETB: Serbian broadcast towerco. 

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development: The EBRD is owned by 66 countries from five continents. Founded in 1991, they have invested in countries across Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the MENA region. Their former investments in the telecom space include towerco, Russian Towers. 

European Wireless Infrastructure Association: Trade association of independent wholesale infrastructure providers. EWIA currently has 10 members which operate across 16 European markets and which have collectively invested in and operate over €100bn of wireless infrastructure assets. 

 

F 

F2i: Infrastructure investor primarily focussed on the Italian market. F2i owns a 60% stake in Italian broadcast towerco, EI Towers. F2i was rumored to have bid for WIND’s towers ultimately acquired by Cellnex, and also submitted a joint bid with Cellnex for the 45% stake in INWIT (prior to the sale being pulled). 

First State Investments: First State is an Australian asset manager with assets all over the world. The company was an investor in Finnish broadcast towerco Digita, prior to the towerco being sold to DigitalBridge. 

Freshwave: Digital Colony’s UK infrastructure platform incorporating StratoOpencell, iWireless Solutions and Spyder Facilities. Freshwave has recently expanded its operations international and now has a presence in the German market.  

 

G 

GD Towers: Deutsche Telekom’s towerco business unit which holds Deutsche Funkturm (Germany) and Magenta T-Infra (Austria). Deutsche Telekom has reportedly started sale proceedings for GD Towers. 

GIC: A leading global investment firm which firm manages Singapore’s foreign reserves through investments in over 40 countries. In the European digital infrastructure space, GIC recently acquired a 30% stake in infraco, CETIN.  

Global Tower: Founded in 2006 as a subsidiary of Turkcell, Global Tower is the biggest infrastructure operator in Turkey with more than 23,000 points of service, of which 8,288 are towers, the rest being rooftops and IBS. Tenants include GSM and fixed-based operators, TV and radio broadcasters, public institutions and service providers. Global Tower also owns UkrTower in the Ukraine, which owns 1,103 sites following the 2016 acquisition of 811 towers from Lifecell (Turkcell’s Ukrainian subsidiary), BelTower in Belarus, which owns 831 towers and 115 towers in Northern Cyprus. 

 

 

H 

Highpoint: Irish towerco, owned by diversified energy and telecoms EPC contract, Obelisk group. Highpoint manages and markets over 150 sites. 

Hightel Towers: Towerco which has around 300 towers in Italy (of which about 50% were acquired from small towercos and 50% were built to suit) and 12 DAS sites. The company has also acquired around 300 towers in Albania and has ambitions to acquire towers in Macedonia, Kosovo and Slovenia, aiming to be a first mover in the Balkans. 

Hivory: Towerco created from the carve out of Altice’s French towers back in 2018, previously known as SFR Towerco. Altice sold a 49.99% stake in the towerco to investor KKR, before agreeing a sale of Hivory to Cellnex. 

Horizon Equity Partners: South African Horizon Equity Partners formed part of a consortium which owned 75% of Altice’s Portuguese tower carve out, OMTEL, prior to OMTEL being sold to Cellnex. 

 

I 

ICE: Norway’s newest entrant, MNO ICE has just 10% market share but lofty ambitions to target the country’s duopoly. ICE has just a modest tower portfolio (estimated to be around 100 sites), with the operator relying on co-locations as well as a recently renewed roaming agreement with Telia (although continuing to build out Norway’s third network). 

IFM Investors: Australian fund manager IFM investors has a portfolio of several infrastructure assets in Europe, North America and Australia. IFM has a stake in broadcast towerco Arqiva although Arqiva’s telecoms business has been sold to Cellnex. 

Iliad: MNO owned by French billionaire, Xavier Niel which has operations in France (where it operates under the brand Free) and Italy. In May 2019, Iliad inked a deal with Cellnex for the sale of a 70% stake in the new entity into which it had transferred its 5,700 French towers (Cellnex has since acquired the remaining 30% stake). Iliad also agreed the sale of its 2,200 Italian towers to the towerco. In Poland, Iliad’s opco, Play has sold towers to Cellnex, with Play retaining a 40% stake (since reduced to 30%). Further Xavier Niel owned companies to have sold towers include Salt in Switzerland (which sold towers to Cellnex), Monaco Telecom which sold towers to Phoenix Tower in Malta and Cyprus, and eir in Ireland which also sold towers to Phoenix Tower.  

InfraVia Capital Partners: Infrastructure investors InfraVia owned Irish towerco Cignal, prior to Cellnex acquiring the towerco. InfraVia acquired Altice’s data centre assets and were linked to the sale of Finnish towerco, Digita (which has since been acquired by Digital Colony). 

INWIT: Telecom Italia carved out INWIT as an independent towerco and listed 40% of the equity in the company in a successful IPO on the Milan stock exchange, raising €875.3mn. In July 2019, Vodafone Italia and INWIT signed a deal to combine their two tower portfolios, creating a listed towerco managing 22,100 sites, with Vodafone receiving €2.14bn in cash plus a 37.5% stake in the combined company – transferring the stake to Vantage Towers (the stake having since been reduced to 33.2%). TIM has also reduced its shareholding to a 51% stake in Daphne 3, which in turn owns a 30.2% stake in INWIT. The Ardian-led consortium which owns the remaining stake in Daphne 3 has made an offer to acquire the majority of TIM’s shareholding.  

ÍslandsTurnar: Icelandic towerco owned by DigitalBridge. ÍslandsTurnar acquired the tower portfolios of MNOs, Sýn and Nova in late 2021, becoming Iceland’s first independent towerco.  

 

J 

JC Decaux Small Cells: Joint venture between Tillman and JC Decaux to deliver small cells on a global scale. 

 

K  

Kismet Capital Group: Russian investment firm owned by former MegaFon CEO, Ivan Tavrin. Kismet Capital secured a controlling shareholding in Russian towerco, Vertical in 2019. In 2021, Kismet Capital formed a new towerco venture combining the assets of MegaFon and Vertical into “New Towers” with Kismet Capital securing a 65% stake in the venture. Kismet Capital owned New Towers has since acquired Russian Towers.  

KKR: Investment firm KKR manages multiple asset classes including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit and, through its strategic partners, hedge funds. In Q117, they entered the European tower sector through the acquisition of 40% of Telefónica’s infrastructure arm, Telxius, for €1,275bn. In 2018, KKR acquired a 49.99% stake in Altice’s French towerco, Hivory. Telxius has since been sold to American Tower and Hivory to Cellnex, but expect KKR to be a serious contendor in any upcoming tower transactions.  

Konsing Group: Serbian managed service provider active in multiple European markets, also own and operate 47 towers in their home country. Planning to grow up in large towerco with ambition to be a leader in this business in the Balkans. 

KPN: Leading telecom and IT service provider in The Netherlands. Sold a total of 1,322 Dutch towers in four tranches between 2008 and 2012 to Open Tower Company, Shere Group and Protelindo (the latter two companies having recently been acquired by Cellnex). Sold a further 2,031 towers in Germany to American Tower in 2012 before the sale of their German subsidiary, E-Plus, to Telefónica in October 2014. 

 

L 

Levira: Estonian broadcast towerco, data centre, network, cloud and media service provider. 51% owned by the government, 49% by TDF. Owns 22 transmitter towers across Estonia and provides co-location services to MNOs 

Liberty Global: MNO which owns Sunrise (Switzerland), Telenet (Belgium), Vodafone Ziggo (Netherlands) and Virgin Media O2 (UK). Liberty Global has stated that it is exploring options regarding monetisation of its assets. The operator’s Belgium opco, Telenet, has just reached a deal to sell its tower portfolio to DigitalBridge. In the UK, Virgin Media O2 (Liberty Global’s JV with Telefónica) has indicated it may sell its stake in Cornerstone. In Switzerland, Sunrise sold its towers to Cellnex prior to the opco’s takeover by Liberty Global 

Logycom Group: The first independent towerco in Kazakhstan, with a portfolio of 100 sites. 

 

M 

Macquarie: Macquarie has an extensive tower portfolio around the world. In Europe, Macquarie owns Slovakian towerco Towercom, and UK broadcast towerco, Arqiva (whose telecoms division has been sold to Cellnex). Former European towerco investments includeCeské Radiokomunikace (Czech Republic) and Russian Towers (Russia). Further afield, Macquarie has investments in towercos including PhilTower Consortium, (Philippines), Mexico Tower Partners (Mexico) and Axicom (Australia). 

Magenta T-Infra: Deutsche Telekom’s Austrian towerco with a portfolio of 7,000 sites. Magenta T-Infra is held under Duetsche Telekom’s GD Towers business unit, with Deutsche Telekom having reportedly kicked off sale proceedings for the business.  

Manulife Investment Management: The global brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. Manulife recently exited its investment in towerco, Phoenix Tower International. 

MBNL: Joint venture infraco formed between EE (BT) and Three (Hutchison) in the UK with around 12,000 sites. Of MBNL’s 12,000 sites, around 7,500 are shared by both Hutchison and EE, with 4,500 used by EE only. The infrashare involves both active and passive sharing but the assets remain on its shareholders’ balance sheets. Hutchison has monetised its stake in the joint venture, with Cellnex set to acquire the economic risks and rewards of Hutchison’s stake as part of their pan-European deal with the MNO.  

Media Broadcast: Broadcast towerco operating over 540 transmitters across Germany. Media Broadcast was separated from TDF in April 2015 and subsequently aquired by Freenet 

MegaFon: Russian MNO which had carved out its 17,000 towers into First Tower Company. In late 2021, MegaFon then announced the formation of a new towerco venture with Russian independent towerco, Vertical. Megafon transferred ownership of its 17,000 towers to the venture, securing a 25% stake in the entity, whilst Vertical contributed its 5,000 sites to the joint venture, with the towerco’s main shareholder, Kismet Capital securing a 65% stake in the entity, since named New Towers. In early 2022, New Towers acquired Russia’s largest independent towerco, Russian Towers.  

Míla: Infraco formed in 2007 from the carve out of the mobile and fixed infrastructure of Icelandic incumbent operator, Síminn. In late 2021, infrastructure firm, Ardian reached a deal to acquire 100% of Míla. 

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners: Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners formed part of a consortium (with Horizon Equity Partners) which bought a 75% of Altice’s Portuguese carve out towerco, OMTEL. The consortium has since sold their investment to Cellnex. 

MTS: Russian MNO which has spun off its tower assets into a separate towerco unit, Tower Infrastructure Company. MTS had begun sale proceedings for Tower Infrastructure Company, but given the political turmoil at present, no further development have been reported. 

 

N 

Netgrid Telecom: Joint venture between Orange and Vodafone in Romania, formerly known as Ovidiu. 

Net4Mobility: Swedish joint venture infrastructure sharing firm founded in 2009 by Telenor and Tele2. The joint venture covers 2G, 4G and more recently 5G technologies, with Net4Mobility having recently secured spectrum in Sweden’s 5G auctions. Net4Mobility involves RANsharing and shared spectrum. 

New Towers: New Russian towerco venture formed through the combination of MegaFon’s 17,000 towers and Vertical’s 5,000 towers. New Towers is 65% owned by Kismet Capital Group, with MegaFon having a 25% stake. In early 2022, New Towers acquired rival Russian towerco, Russian Towers. As of Q122, New Towers’ portfolio stands at 30,200 sites.  

Nova: Icelandic MNO which sold its towers to DigitalBridge’s ÍslandsTurnar 

NOS: Portuguese MNO which sold its tower portfolio to Cellnex 

NOVEC: Leading independent operator of telecom and broadcasting sites and high-voltage pylons in the Netherlands. NOVEC owns a 25% stake in Dutch towerco, Open Tower Company and in addition to managing OTC’s telecommunication sites, has its own broadcasting sites and offers antenna sites on over 10,000 high-voltage pylons. 

 

O 

OIV: Croatian broadcast towerco which offers co-location to MNOs from 250 sites. 

OMTEL: Portuguese towerco with which was created from the carve out of Altice’s Portuguese towers back in 2018. Altice sold a 75% stake to a conglomerate led by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Horizon Equity Partners, before the towerco was acquired by Cellnex in 2020.  

Open Tower Company: Dutch towerco with a portfolio of 890 sites, Open Tower Company is 75% owned by Dutch pension fund ABP and 25% owned by Novec, a subsidiary of power grid operator TenneT. 

Orange: One of Europe’s largest MNOs with a footprint across France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Moldova and Romania. Orange has carved out its French and Spanish towers into TOTEM which launched in October 2021. The operator is widely expected to bring tower portfolios from its other markets into TOTEM’s perimeter and is undertaking a strategic review at present. Orange wants to remain majority control of TOTEM. TOTEM has an appetite for M&A including the potential formation of JVs with other MNO owned towercos. In Poland and Romania, Orange’s towers are managed by the joint ventures NetWorkS! (with T-Mobile) and Netgrid Telecoms (with Vodafone) respectively, although the towers remain on the balance sheets of the MNOs. Outside of this, Orange has completed one sale and leaseback transaction in Europe, selling 1,500 non-strategic sites to Cellnex in Spain. 

ORS Group: Austrian broadcaster with a portfolio of around 450 towers. 

 

P 

Peppertree Capital Management, Inc: A private equity firm focused on making investments in growing communication infrastructure companies, Peppertree has more than US$1bn under management and has made more than 75 investments in communication infrastructure companies in 10 countries. In addition to sponsoring tower, DAS, data center and communication rooftop developers, fiber network operators and spectrum auction participants, Peppertree seeks investments in real estate related to its areas of focus, non-telecom infrastructure projects and other businesses and assets with contractually recurring revenue. 

PGGM: Dutch pension fund PGGM created a joint venture, ‘ATC Europe’ with American Tower in 2016. Following CDPQ and Allianz Capital Partners’ investment in ATC Europe (after the Telxius deal), PGGM’s shareholding has been reorganised to a shareholding in ATC’s French and German opcos. Expect PGGM to be linked to other major tower transactions in the future. 

Polkomtel: Polish MNO (trading under the Plus brand) which sold both passive and active equipment to Cellnex in a landmark deal for the European tower industry 

PPF Group: International finance and investment group which bought Telenor’s Central and Eastern European assets (which now operate under the Yettel brand). PPF are also shareholders in CETIN Group, the infraco carved out of their PPF’s MNO assets in Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia. 

Phoenix Tower International: US-headquartered towerco with a portfolio of over 14,000 sites spread across 19 markets in CALA, the US and Europe. Phoenix Tower entered the European market in 2020, reaching a deal to acquire eir’ tower porfolio in Ireland and establishing a joint venture with Bouygues Telecom to rollout up to 4,000 new sites in France. The company has since further expanded its European operations acquiring Monaco Telecom’s sites in Malta and Cyprus, acquiring Towertel in Italy and more recently reaching a deal to acquire 3,200 sites from Cellnex in France.  

Providence Equity: Communications and media investment specialists whose towerco investments on a global stage have included Indus Towers (India), Grupo Torresur (Brazil) and KIN (Indonesia). Providence also has investments in a number of mobile network operators including Bite in Lithuania and Latvia. 

 

Proximus: Belgian MNO which also has a presence in Luxembourg where it operates under the brand, Tango. In Belgium, Proximus has an active sharing joint venture with Orange.

PSP Investments: Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) is a Canadian investment manager which forms part of the consortium owning French towerco TDF. In 2017, PSP also formed part of a consortium with Digital Bridge and TIAA Investments to acquire Vantage Data Centers. 

PTT Kule: Turkish state-owned towerco which is currently building two huge broadcast towers in major Turkish cities which will be made available for telecoms colocation. Has plans to build up to 40 new towers in Turkey, and may be lined up as the manager of more towers acquired by the Turkish government in future. 

 

R 

Radiocom: Broadcast towerco from Romania. 

Rai Way: Listed Italian broadcast towerco with 2,300 towers which manages both active and passive infrastructure for their broadcast clients. The company reported having mobile tenants on around 700 of their sites. 

Rostelecom: Russian state fixed line provider which has diversified across digital services and communications infrastructure at a rapid pace over the last five years, as well as owning Russian MNO Tele2. 

RTRS: State-owned Russian television and broadcasting network with some MNO tenants on their towers, but they don’t seem to be proactively promoting co-location. 

Russian Towers: Independent towerco in Russia which built a portfolio of over 7,000 sites. Russian Towers was acquired by Kismet Capital Group’s New Towers in early 2022. 

 

S 

Salt: Swiss MNO owned by French billionaire, Xavier Niel (who also owns Iliad). Salt inked a deal with Cellnex for the sale of a 90% stake of a company into which it had transferred its 2,800 towers. The deal also included a build to suit component of up to 500 new sites. 

SBA Communications: Publicly listed US towerco with over 35,000 towers in North and South America as well as in South Africa and Tanzania. Currently no presence in the European market. 

Service Telecom: Russian towerco formed in 2015. Within its first year of operations the company built 350 sites, and has continued to rollout new sites whilst also completing a handful of towerco acquisitions (Link Development in 2018, Technoresource in 2019 and Neva Telecom in 2021). In September 2021, Service Telecom reached a deal to acquire VEON’s 15,400 site Russian tower portfolio. Service Telecom’s tower portfolio now stands at over 18,000 sites. The towerco had been targetting an IPO, although ongoing political turmoil is likely to have put plans on ice.   

Shared Access: Towerco with a portfolio of over 50,000 site locations, that have been assembled through partnerships with major sporting and farming organisations available for development across the UK and Ireland. The towerco owns a portfolio of 230 towers in Ireland and the UK and provides in-building and DAS networks. 

Shere Group: Independent towerco which had developed a portfolio of 860 towers across the UK and the Netherlands. Acquired by Cellnex in 2016 for €393mn 

Síminn: Icelandic incumbent operator which carved out its infrastructure into Míla 

Sotka Vysotok: Towerco in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan reportedly owning around 200 sites. 

SUNAB (Svenska UMTS-nät AB): Active infrastructure sharing joint venture (involving RANsharing ans shared spectrum) between Tele2 and Telia in Sweden governing 3G technology. SUNAB will be wound down as 3G is shut off in the country. 

Sunrise: Strong challenger operator in the Swiss duolopy market, brought a large percentage of their 2,000 strong tower portfolio to market in 2017, marking the country’s first tower deal. The towers were acquired for €458mn by a Cellnex-led consortium including Swiss Life Asset Managers and Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners. Cellnex has since acquired DTCP’s stake. 

Swiss Life Asset Managers: Investment firm which formed part of the Cellnex-led consortium acquiring Sunrise’s towers in Switzerland 

Swisscom: Swiss market leading mobile operator and broadcast towerco. Swisscom also has operations in Liechtenstein and owns Fastweb in Italy.  

Sýn: Icelandic MNO which sold its towers to DigitalBridge’s ÍslandsTurnar 

 

T 

T-Mobile: Operating name of Deutsche Telekom’s mobile operations in Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Poland. 

TDC Netco: Danish netco established from the split up of old incumbent TDC into a netco and an opco. 

TDF: French broadcast and telecom towerco with a portfolio of over 7,700 sites in the country. The company also provides IBS and owns four data centres. TDF is owned by Brookfield, APG Asset Management, PSP Investments, Arcus Infrastructure Partners and Credit Agricole Assurances. Some of TDF’s investors are reportedly looking to exit their investment. 

Tele2: MNO which has undertaken infrastructure sharing in Sweden with Telenor (Net4Mobility) and Telia (SUNAB) and in Latvia and Lithania with Bite (Centuria), as well as infrastructure sharing with T-Mobile in the Netherlands (the two operators have since merged). The company also has operations in Germany, Croatia, Kazakhstan and Estonia but has sold its stake in the Russian operator by the same name. Tele 2 has yet to reveal any significant plans for their passive infrastructure, but has told analysts that “there is an opportunity to do more in terms of sharing and separating out some of our infrastructure assets.” 

Telecentras: Lithuanian TV broadcast operator with around 30 towers available to the telecoms market. 

Telefónica: Mobile network operator branded as O2 in the UK and Germany and Movistar in Spain. Telefónica also has operations in Central and Latin America (although is undertaking an operational spin-off of its opcos in hispanic countries in CALA). In 2016, Telefónica announced the creation of an infrastructure subsidiary, Telxius, into which it transferred 11,000 Spanish and 2,350 German towers along with towers in Brazil, Peru, Chile and later, Argentina. Telefónica also transferred 31,000km of subsea cabling into its infraco. After a cancelled IPO, Telefónica sold a 40% stake in Telxius to global investment firm, KKR followed by the sale of a further 9.99% stake to Pontegadea. In early 2021, Telxius’ tower business was acquired by American Tower for €7.7bn. 

In the UK, Telefónica’s towers are owned by Cornerstone, Telefónica’s 50:50 joint venture with Vodafone. Telefónica and Vodafone recently announced the commercialisation of Cornerstone, with Vodafone transferring its stake to Vantage Towers. Since O2’s merger with Liberty Global’s Virgin Media, the new joint venture has indicated it may sell its stake in Cornerstone 

Telekom Austria: MNO with a presence in Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. Telekom Austria have begun plans to carve out their towers into a separate towerco unit to reap “more benefits from tower assets through [a] targeted management focus on internal efficiencies and higher tenancy ratios”. In 2021, the Group established an organisation for its towers business, which is currently being developed and carved-out the towers in Bulgaria and Croatia. 

América Móvil – Telekom Austria’s majority shareholder - has formed operator-owned towerco Telesites in Mexico and another multinational towerco, Sitios Latinoamérica, which now opens the operator’s sites in 15 Latin American markets. Telesites is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange and América Móvil has similar plans for Sitios Latinoamérica. 

Telekom Srbija: Parent company of mts in Serbia and Kosovo, as well as of m:tel in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro (being a JV shareholder in the latter).

Telenor: Multinational, Norweigian-owned MNO with a footprint in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland (as well as several markets across Asia), the operator sold its Central and Eastern European operations (in Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia) to PPF Group in 2018. Until 2022, the opcos continued to operate under the Telenor brand but have recently been rebranded to Yettel. 

Telenor has carved out their Nordic tower assets into Telenor Tower Holdings, focussing on increasing the external revenue and improving operational efficiencies. From Q1 2022, Telenor will begin reporting financials for the assets. Their stakes in various joint ventures will initially be excluded from this reporting. In Sweden, Telenor is involved in two active sharing joint ventures: 3GIS (with Hi3G which covers 3G and is being wound down) and Net4Mobility (with Tele2 – whose remit has just been extended to include 5G as well as 2G and 4G). In Denmark, Telenor’s towers are held by TT-Network, the joint venture with Telia. Telenor refer to their assets as “strategic” implying that if monetisation is on the cards, a sale of a minority stake is the most likely option. 

Telenor Infra: Telenor’s Norwegian towerco business unit (see Telenor and Telenor Tower Holding) 

Telenor Tower Holdings: Telenor’s towerco business unit which encompasses Telenor Infra (Norway), Telenor Tower Sweden (Sweden), DNA Tower (Finland) and Telenor’s stakes in joint ventures 3GIS (Sweden), Net4Mobility (Sweden) and TT-Network (Denmark). Telenor Tower Holding will begin reporting financials for their wholly owned assets from Q1 22.  

Telia: Mobile network operator (formerly known as TeliaSonera) with a presence in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway and Sweden (the operator also has a 38% stake in Turkey’s Turkcell). Telia has entered into network sharing ventures in Denmark (TT Networks, with Telenor) and Finland (Yhteis Verkko, with DNA) and had sold towers from their former Spanish subsidiary, Yoigo, to Cellnex back in 2015 as part of the Telefónica tower deal. 

Telia’s tower assets in Sweden, Norway and Finland have been carved into separate towerco units and sit under the Telia Asset Management business unit. In June 2021, Telia agreed the sale of a 49% stake in its Finnish and Norwegian assets to infrastructure investor Brookfield and Swedish pension fund, Alecta. In January 2022, a similar deal was agreed in Sweden. 

Telia Towers: Telia’s towerco business which owns assets in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Telia has sold a stake in the tower units in all three markets to Brookfield and Alecta (see Telia) 

Telxius: Infraco created by Telxius in 2016, into which they transferred towers in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Argentina as well as 31,000km of subsea cabling. After a cancelled IPO, Telefónica sold a 40% stake in Telxius to investment firm, KKR followed by an effective 9.99% stake to Pontegadea. In 2021, Telxius’ tower business was acquired by American Tower.  

Teracom: Broadcast towerco for Denmark and Sweden. 

Three: See CK Hutchison 

Tillman Infrastructure: US headquartered towerco with a a focus on BTS, Tillman is expanding its presence in the European market. Tillman Infrastructure is part of the Tillman Global Holdings group 

TOTEM: Towerco formed through the carve out of Orange’s tower assets in Spain and France. The operator is widely expected to bring tower portfolios from its other markets into TOTEM’s perimeter and is undertaking a strategic review at present. Orange wants to remain majority control of TOTEM, but has an appetite to form joint ventures with other MNO owned towercos (as well as further M&A).  

Tower Infrastructure Company: Towerco unit formed from the carve out of Russian MNO MTS’s tower portfolio. MTS reportedly kicked off sale procedings for Tower Infrastructure Company, but with the ongoing political issues, no further developments have been reported. 

TowerCast: French broadcast towerco owned by NRJ Group. Also sells co-location to telecom clients. NRJ announced it would come to market in 2017, but the deal has quietly slipped off the radar since. 

Towercom A.S.: Slovakian tower company with over 700 masts and 90 years experience in the broadcast sector. The company was acquired by Macquarie in 2013, although it has been reported in the past that Macquarie may be looking to exit its investment. 

Towercom (Ltd): Towerco in the Republic of Ireland carved out and sold by Eircom in 2007. Operates over 400 towers. Sold to AMP’s Irish Infrastructure Fund in 2013. 

TowerTel: Telecom subsidiary of Italian broadcast towerco EI Towers, which was acquired by Phoenix Tower in 2020. 

TT-Network: Danish infrastructure sharing joint venture formed with around 1,200 towers (and 3,100 sites of other typologies) established in 2012 by Telia and Telenor. The joint venture includes both actiev and passive sharing of 2G, 3G, 4G and recently, 5G networks. TT-Network makes their network available for usage by third parties and is also active in the in-building space.  

Turkcell: Leading MNO in Turkey which also has a presence in Ukraine (where the operator trades as Lifecell), Belarus (where the operator trades as BEST) and theTurkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (where the operator trades as Kuzey Kibris Turkcell). Turkcell carved out and retained their own towerco, Global Tower into which they have transferred their Turkish and Ukrainian towers and have the rights of use of the towers of their subsidiaries in Belarus and TRNC. Turkcell had planned to IPO Global Tower before cancelling the process at the eleventh hour. 

 

 

U 

United Group: Leading multi-play telecoms and media provider in South Eastern Europe. United Group's mobile operations include Telemach in Croatia and Slovenia, Vivacom in Bulgaria and Wind Hellas in Greece. Whilst Wind Hellas' previous owners (Crystal Almond) had already divested the company's towers (to Vantage Towers), rumours are circulating that United Group may consider a sale of its other tower assets.

 

 

V 

Valocîme: French company formed by the former management team of FPS Towers. Valocîme offers landlords a higher rent for their property than is currently received from the tower owner. Their model differs from a land aggregator model as Valocîme does not purchase the land/building from the landlord. 

Vantage Towers: Towerco formed from the carve out of Vodafone’s towers in Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Romania and Italy. In the latter, Vodafone has combined their tower portfolio with that of TIM creating an enlarged INWIT (in which Vantage Towers has a 33.2% stake). In the UK, Vodafone has transferred its 50% stake in joint venture Cornerstone to Vantage Towers. In Greece, Vantage Towers has acquired the tower portfolio of Wind Hellas and bolstered its site count.  Vantage Towers listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2021, although new sources suggest a number of funds have made offers to acquire the towerco. Vodafone CEO, Nick Reed had recently hinted on an investor call that a merger with the likes of Deutsche Telekom’s GD Towers or Orange’s TOTEM would be the next logical move for Vantage Towers stating, “The next stage (for Vantage) should be an industrial merger, bringing our towers with another large player, a like-minded player, a like-minded operator." Reed did not however rule out relinquishing some of its 80% stake in Vantage adding that there was "plenty of room for us to monetise down while staying in co-control of that entity with that like-minded player.” 

VEON (formerly VimpelCom): Dutch headquartered MNO with a presence in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia (as well as Pakistan and Bangladesh). VEON sold its Russian towers to Service Telecom in 2010, and prior to selling their opco to CK Hutchison, sold 7,377 Italian towers to Cellnex in 2015.  VEON had also kicked of sale proceedings in its other markets, and whilst Ukraine had been one of the most advanced processes, the political turmoil has of course derailed plans.  

Vertical: Russian towerco which was formed in 2017 and built a portfolio of around 2,000 sites, 90% of which were in the Moscow region. In late 2021, Vertical, whose majority shareholder is Kismet Capital Group, formed a new towerco venture combining their sites with those of MegaFon. The new Kismet Capital owned towerco, named New Towers, has since acquired Russian towerco, Russian Towers.  

VICTUS Networks: Network sharing joint venture, governing 7,000 towers, created in 2014 with 50-50 participation between Vodafone Greece and Wind Hellas. Uses a partial MORAN business model. 

Vodafone: Multinational mobile network operator with a presence in 14 European markets. Vodafone has carved out the vast majority of its tower assets into Vantage Towers and listed a minority stake in the towerco on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Vantage Towers has an appetite for M&A and the formation of joint ventures. In Greece, Vodafone has acquired the towers of Wind Hellas; In Italy Vodafone has merged its towers with TIM’s INWIT, with Vantage Towers owning a 33.2% stake in INWIT; In the UK, Vodafone has transferred its 50% interest in JV Cornerstone to Vantage Towers, whilst simultaneously announcing the commercialisation of Cornerstone. In Romania, Vantage Towers’ sites are managed (but not owned) by Netgrid Telecoms, their joint venture with Orange. Vodafone have expressed an appetite to explore the formation of a joint venture between Vantage Towers and another “like-minded operator”, leading onlookers to speculate as to whether a tie up with Orange’s TOTEM or Deutsche Telekom’s GD Towers could be on the cards. 

 

 

W 

Wind Tre: Italian mobile network operator formed through the merger of Hutchison’s Tre and VEON’s Wind. Hutchison has since acquired VEON’s stake in the entity. 

Wireless Infrastructure Group: One of Europe’s most entrepreneurial middle-market towercos, WIG became a bona fide towerco in 2007. Through a combination of organic growth and small to mid-sized acquisitions, WIG has grown a portfolio of over 2,000 active sites and also is active in indoor and outdoor small cells. WIG bought Arqiva’s indoor business in late 2018 and  had expressed an appetite for further M&A. WIG was taken over by Brookfield in early 2021 and has also expanded into the US market.  

 

Y 

Yettel: New brand name for PPF Group’s mobile operations (previously operating under the Telenor brand) in Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia 

Yhteis Verrko: Finnish Shared Network which is a venture between Telia and DNA. Yhteis Verrko is responsible for construction of the network in the more sparsely populated Northern and Eastern parts of the country although it is as yet unclear whether they own the towers involved (which number around 2,000). Their network covers 50% of the geographic area but just 15% of the population. 

 

 

Are we missing anyone? 

Whilst we have made every best effort to include all the key players – if you think you should be included in the list, or if you spot anyone missing, please email Laura Graves, TowerXchange’s Research Director at lgraves@towerxchange.com  

 

 

Interested in networking with the who’s who? 

On 17-18 May 2022, the management team of Europe’s towercos will join MNO tower strategists, industry investors and the industry supply chain at the 6th Annual TowerXchange Meetup Europe. Taking place in London, the Meetup brings together the top 300 most influential stakeholders in the sector. To find out more and to register to join us, visit https://meetup.towerxchange.com/europe