There are three MNOs in the Greek market with Cosmote having the largest market share and an estimated 4,200 towers (and 600 micro sites). Cosmote is 100% owned by OTE which is in turn 50% owned by Deutsche Telekom.
Deutsche Telekom has long had its own towerco in Germany (Deutsche Funkturm) and earlier in 2022 formed a towerco in Austria (Magenta T-Infra), with both towercos held under the GD Towers business unit. Deutsche Telekom completed the sale of a 51% stake in GD Towers to DigitalBridge and Brookfield in Q1 2023. Cosmote has recently announced it’s exploring tower spin off to a 100%-owned subsidiary.
Greece - telecom market statistics Q3 2024
In July 2019, Vodafone announced plans to carve out its European towers into a towerco, Vantage Towers. In Greece, Vodafone shared passive infrastructure with Wind Hellas via the joint venture, VICTUS Networks (although the towers remained on the balance sheets of the MNOs).
In July 2020 in an announcement surrounding the formal launch of Vantage Towers, Vodafone announced that it had reached a deal with Crystal Almond “(the former controlling shareholder of Wind Hellas) for the two operators to transfer their tower assets to Vantage Towers Greece.
Greece - estimated tower ownership Q3 2024
Whilst initially a joint venture between the two operators (with Vodafone having the majority share), the IPO of Vantage Towers triggered the automatic acquisition of Crystal Almond’s shareholding by Vodafone, with Vantage Towers Greece now wholly owned by Vodafone’s Vantage Towers.
Vodafone’s sale of its 81.7% stake in Vantage Towers to a consortium of investment firms KKR & Co., Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) completed in Q1 2023 with the new co-control partnership of the MNO and investment firms called Oak Holdings.
Vantage Towers is the preferred supplier of towers to both Vodafone Greece and NOVA (former Wind Hellas), with the two parties having committed to being anchor tenant on 250 new sites (500 in total) to be built by Vantage Towers in the next five years. In addition to sharing passive infrastructure through Vantage Towers, Vodafone and NOVA (former Wind Hellas) have an active sharing agreement in place.
Beyond Cosmote and Vantage Towers Greece, broadcast towerco, Digea owns 165 towers in the Greek market, with national broadcaster ERT owning 400 sites.
