Vantage Towers has started to offer upfront payments to businesses and landlords in Ireland which host its towers on their land in exchange for longer-term leases, according to the Irish Independent.
Under a long-term strategy, the towerco is offering three options to existing landlords who currently receive rental payments from it. The first one is entering into a long-term lease agreement of between 30-50 years with up-front payments, the second one is entering into medium-term agreements of 15 to 20 years with upfront payments and the third option is selling the freehold on the site.
According to Brian McHugh, Managing director of Vantage Towers Ireland, this move will help Vantage Towers plan the development of its network in the future while providing capital to landlords.
Vantage Towers operates 1,300 towers across the country that are almost evenly split between rooftop and macro towers. The towerco has previously shared it has competed with lease aggregators who have driven up land leases across its markets and such a move will help it protect assets against such players in Ireland.
Business investments in land acquisition are not something new for European towercos. A couple of other large ones - INWIT and Cellnex have also concentrated on land acquisition. In their financial results for the first nine months of 2024, INWIT shared the towerco continues to pursue renegotiating rental contracts and purchasing land within its 2024- 2026 strategy to improve efficiency.
Cellnex set up a landco (Celland Estate Management) earlier in 2024 within its New Chapter and plan to help accelerate value creation in lease as well as cost optimisation in its key Western European markets.
