There are three MNOs in the Irish market. Vodafone, 3 and eir. Vodafone carved out their towers into Vantage Towers, and in Q1 2023 completed the sale of its 81.7% stake to investment firms KKR and GIP, forming a co-control partnership with them called Oak Holdings.
In May 2020, eir signed a deal to sell its portfolio of 650 sites to Phoenix Tower International for EUR300mn. The deal also included a BTS commitment with PTI expected to add up to 800 new sites for the operator.
In early 2024 PTI acquired 100% of Cellnex’ business in the country for EUR971mn. The completion of the deal is pending regulatory approvals.Three (owned by CK Hutchison) has sold its towers to Cellnex as part of a pan-European deal. Cellnex entered the Irish market back in 2019 with the acquisition of Cignal (Cignal having previously acquired the towers – and the land under third party towers – of state forestry company, Coillte back in 2015).
Its recent Irish market exit following the sale of all assets to PTI follows a strategy to deleverage. There have been a handful of other tower transactions in the Irish market, most notably the acquisition of 340 masts from Eircom (owners of eir) by Towercom back in 2007. In July 2023 investment firm John Laing acquired Towercom for an undisclosed amount. Over half of Towercom’s 409 sites are to be upgraded or redeveloped over the next 10 years.
There is a long tail of other independent towercos in the Irish market (notably Brookfield backed Wireless Infrastructure Group which, whilst just having a portfolio of 50 sites in Ireland, has a portfolio of 3,200 towers in the UK).
