Cellnex expands its presence in Portugal

Cellnex has reached an agreement with the Portuguese mobile operator NOS for the acquisition of 100% of NOS Towering: 2.000 telecommunication sites and an agreement to increase the perimeter by up to 400 new sites over the next six years.

Just three and a half months ago, the acquisition of OMTEL by Cellnex represented the entry into Portugal, the eighth country in which the company operates.

In a scenario as complex as the current one, Cellnex‘s corporate and Portuguese teams have managed to sign the second operation in this country by reaching an agreement with the Portuguese mobile operator NOS for the acquisition of 100% of NOS Towering. Thanks to the agreement, 2,000 telecommunications sites distributed by urban areas (40%), suburban and rural areas (60%) throughout the country will be integrated into the portfolio of towers and antennas managed by the Group.

In Portugal, Cellnex will manage and operate more than 5,000 sites, representing approximately 40% of the Portuguese telecommunications infrastructure market.

Under the agreement, Cellnex will carry out an initial payment of 375 million euros corresponding to NOS Towering value, in addition to an additional investment of 175 million relate to perimeter increase up to 400 sites and other joint initiatives in the next six years.

The agreement between Cellnex and NOS binds both companies for an initial period of 15 years, extensible to an additional 15-year period. Thus, NOS will continue to use the locations operated by Cellnex, locating its voice and data signal transmission equipment.

Cellnex CEO Tobias Martinez said that “the agreement reached with NOS reinforces the nature and the neutral and independent operator profile that characterises the Cellnex model. Following the very recent agreement to acquire OMTEL, also in Portugal, this transaction exemplifies the sense of being an operator which, precisely due to its neutral and independent nature, can consolidate long-term collaboration projects with the various MNOs and telecom operators who access our infrastructures to roll out their telecommunications networks”.

His counterpart in the Portuguese company, Miguel Almeida, explained to the Portuguese media that the agreement with Cellnex “allows us to respond to the demanding challenges posed by the digital transformation by offering an excellent service to Portuguese families“.

Once the integration of these assets is completed —subject to the usual regulatory and administrative authorizations in these cases— and the the new locations deployed, it is estimated that the additional EBITDA (IFRS16) generated for the Group will reach 50 million euros.

With this transaction, Cellnex‘s backlog of future sales contracted will grow by € 2 billion to 46 billion.