Cellnex, a European infrastructure company, is continuing its series of acquisitions with a €5.2 billion agreement to purchase Hivory, the tower business owned by Altice Europe. The transaction will be financed through a new capital raise from shareholders.
Once finalized, the acquisition will add approximately 10,500 tower sites in France to Cellnex’s portfolio. Additionally, Cellnex plans to invest another €900 million to construct 2,500 more sites in the country. As part of the agreement, Altice Europe has committed to leasing space on these towers for its French telecom brand, SFR.
The deal involves the acquisition of Hivory from Altice and its partner, Starlight Holdco, and is pending regulatory clearance. It is expected to close in the second half of the year.
Following the completion of this expansion, Cellnex will control 26,740 tower sites in France. It already has infrastructure agreements in place with French operators Bouygues Telecom, Free Mobile (part of Iliad), and SFR.
Aggressive Expansion Strategy
This deal is part of Cellnex’s broader expansion strategy across Europe. The company has been actively acquiring tower assets in major markets such as Spain and Portugal.
Cellnex is also waiting for regulatory approval on its planned acquisition of assets from CK Hutchison in both Italy and the UK. That €10 billion multi-country agreement was announced in 2020.
To finance both the Hivory purchase and its ongoing integration of assets in the Netherlands (in partnership with Deutsche Telekom), Cellnex will launch a €7 billion rights issue. This marks the second major shareholder funding round in less than a year. In August 2020, the company raised €4 billion to help fund the CK Hutchison acquisition, along with a pending €800 million deal for a controlling interest in the company managing Play’s tower assets in Poland.
