Cellnex closes Q1 2022 with a 60% growth in revenue, EBITDA and cash flow

Results January-March 2022

Up to April, the Company has reached new growth agreements in France, Portugal, the UK and the Netherlands with an accumulated investment of €2 billion

• The main financial indicators[1] continue to reflect the effect of geographic expansion –following the integrations in 2021– and the strength of the Group’s organic business:
  • Revenue[2] amounted to €828 million (vs €506 million in 1Q 2021); Adjusted EBITDA €634 million (vs €381 million in 1Q 2021); and free recurring leveraged free cash flow €300 million (vs €180 million 1Q 2021).
  • Points of presence (PoPs) increased by approximately 50% (with 6.5% organic growth, including the effect of the roll-out of new sites in the period).
  • Cellnex confirms the outlook for FY 2022 with revenue between €3.46 and €3.51 billion, EBITDA between €2.65 and €2.7 billion and a 39% growth in recurring cash flow (€1.35-€1.38 billion).
• Net financial debt[3] stood at €13.6 billion as of April 2022. 86% of the debt is referenced to a fixed rate.
• As of April 2022, Cellnex has available liquidity (treasury and undrawn debt) of approximately €7.8 billion.

Barcelona, 27 April 2022. Cellnex Telecom has presented its results for the first quarter of 2022. Revenue amounted to €828 million (+64%) and adjusted EBITDA grew to 634 million (+66%), reflecting, in addition to organic growth, the effect of the consolidation of the acquisitions carried out in 2021. Free and recurring leveraged cash flow totalled €300 million (+67%).

The net result was down by €93 million, due to the effect of higher amortisations (+75% vs 1Q 2021) and financial costs (+58% vs 1Q 2021) associated with the sustained process of acquisitions and integrations and the consequent expansion of the Group’s geographic footprint.

Cellnex CEO Tobias Martinez highlighted “a first quarter marked by organic growth, which shows the strength of our business, and the consolidation of the operations carried out in recent months which continue to produce double-digit increases –over 60 percent– in income, EBITDA and recurring Cash Flow. This growth will continue to have a significant carry-over effect in 2022, when the latest operations carried out in Poland, Netherlands, Italy and France will have been consolidated for a full year, in addition to incorporating the conclusion of the CK Hutchison assets in the United Kingdom scheduled for the second half of the year.”

Business lines: Main indicators for the period

• Infrastructure services for mobile telecommunications operators contributed 90% of total income, to the tune of €750 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 76%.
• At €56 million, activity in broadcasting infrastructures provided 7% of revenue.
• The business focused on security and emergency service networks and solutions for smart urban infrastructure management (IoT and Smart cities) contributed 3% of revenue, totalling €23 million.
• As of March 31, Cellnex had a total of 102,712 operational sites (without taking into account the 22,575 sites scheduled for roll-out by 2030 and operations pending completion): 4,502 in Austria, 1,439 in Denmark, 10,397 in Spain, 23,189 in France, 1,849 in Ireland, 20,393 in Italy, 4,070 in the Netherlands, 14,887 in Poland, 5,909 in Portugal, 7,996 in the United Kingdom, 2,703 in Sweden and 5,378 in Switzerland; plus 5,815 DAS nodes and Small Cells.
• Organic growth in points of presence at the sites was +5% in relation to the same period in 2021, including the effect of the roll-out of new sites in the period.

Financial structure

Cellnex has a debt structure marked by the flexibility provided by the various instruments used.

• The Group’s net debt as of April 2022, excluding lease-related liabilities, stood at €13.6 billion. 86% of the debt is referenced to a fixed rate.
• In March the company issued a bond totalling €1 billion.
• In April 2022, Cellnex had access to immediate liquidity (cash + undrawn debt) to the tune of approximately €7.8 billion.
• Cellnex Telecom’s bond issues maintained their “investment grade” rating from Fitch (BBB-) with a stable outlook, confirmed in January. For its part, S&P maintains the BB rating with a stable outlook confirmed in March.

New growth agreements for €2 billion

Up to April the Company has announced new agreements in France with Bouygues Telecom –for the construction of up to 2,850 new additional sites by 2028, the acquisition of two additional Central Offices (datacenters) and the expansion of the joint fibre to the tower deployment project announced in 2020–, and with Iliad, –for the roll-out of up to 2,000 new additional sites by 2028–; in addition to the agreement with Société du Grand Paris to provide connectivity to the new lines 16 and 17 of the Parisian underground. Overall additional total investment in France is close to €1.5 billion.

Significant new investments in this period include the agreements reached in Portugal to expand cooperation with MEO –through the acquisition of nearly 700 additional sites– and NOS –through the extension of the agreement announced in April 2020– as well as the acquisition of 63 sites from ONI; the projects to provide connectivity to the London to Brighton rail line in the United Kingdom; and the ProRail rail network in the Netherlands. These total more than €500 million of additional spending.

Cellnex has also reached an agreement with BT to enhance their current MSSA (Master Site Service Agreement)  due to end in 2030, with a multidecade partnership agreement, which includes the option to extend it until 2040 with an “all or nothing” clause.

Agreement to exercise purchase rights on minority stakes

Additionally, as was already planned, the Company has exercised the right to purchase the 30% that Iliad still held in the tower company (with an investment of €950 million) that was created to manage the sites acquired by Cellnex from Iliad in France in 2019. Both companies, Iliad and Cellnex, have also reached an agreement through which Cellnex increased its stake by 10% (to reach 70%, with an investment of €140 million) in the company that manages the Play sites in Poland, while Iliad will continue to hold 30%.

The cash outflow associated with the exercise of these purchase rights will be offset by the proceeds from the divestment of 3,200 sites in France, required by the French competition authority, as well as from the divestment in the UK of around 1,000 sites, required by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as a preliminary to the acquisition of CK Hutchison’s UK assets.

About Cellnex Telecom

The efficient roll-out of next-generation connectivity is essential to drive technological innovation and accelerate inclusive economic growth. Cellnex Telecom is the independent neutral wireless telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructure provider that enables operators to access Europe’s most extensive network of advanced telecommunications infrastructure on a shared-use basis, helping to reduce access barriers for new operators and improve services in the most remote areas.

Cellnex manages a portfolio of 137,000 sites –including planned roll-outs up to 2030– in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Poland. Cellnex’s business is structured in four major areas: telecommunications infrastructure services; audiovisual broadcasting networks, security and emergency service networks and solutions for smart urban infrastructure and services management (Smart cities and the “Internet of Things” (IoT)).

The company is listed on the continuous market of the Spanish stock exchange and is part of the selective IBEX 35 and EuroStoxx 100 indices. It is also present in the main sustainability indices, such as CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), Sustainalytics, FTSE4Good, MSCI and Standard Ethics. Cellnex’s reference shareholders include Edizione, GIC, TCI, Blackrock, Canada Pension Plan, CriteriaCaixa, Wellington Management Group, Capital Group, FMR and Norges Bank.