Cellnex acquires 100% of the Portuguese NOS Towering

The transaction involves nearly 2,000 locations and an agreement to increase the perimeter to 400 more in the next six years.

Cellnex has reached an agreement with the Portuguese mobile operator NOS for the acquisition of 100% of NOS Towering. The transaction initially involves about 2,000 locations telecommunications. This is a portfolio of telecommunications towers and rooftop antennas, located in urban (40%), suburban and rural areas (60%) throughout the country.

The purchase operation represents for Cellnex a initial investment of approximately 375 million euros (enterprise value), with an additional investment commitment of up to 175 million euros to expand the perimeter (in up to 400 locations, including a construction program for new towers) and other initiatives agreed to be executed over the next six years. The acquisition will be financed with available cash.

Within the framework of the agreement Cellnex and Nos have signed an initial 15-year contract, extendable to successive periods of additional 15 years, by which NOS will continue to use the sites that Cellnex will operate, locating its voice and data signal transmission equipment there.

Likewise, taking into account the investment needs of the Portuguese market in mobile networks as well as the network densification process, including the rural area to avoid the territorial digital divide, the agreement provides for the expansion of the perimeter with up to 400 new sites, including a program for the construction of new towers in the next six years.

Once the integration of these assets and the deployment of the new sites is completed, it is estimated that the additional EBITDA (IFRS16) generated for the group will reach 50 million euros.

With this operation the Future contracted sales of Cellnex (backlog) will grow by 2,000 million of euros to total 46,000 million.

The closing of the operation is subject to the usual regulatory and administrative authorizations in these cases.

The CEO of Cellnex, Tobias Martinez, highlighted “the ability of the Cellnex teams, both at the corporate level and in Portugal, to continue advancing new agreements with our clients, even in a particularly complex and sensitive scenario like the one we are experiencing.”

"The agreement reached with NOS reinforces the nature and profile of a neutral and independent operator that characterizes the Cellnex model. It exemplifies, after the recent agreement to acquire OMTEL also in Portugal, the sense of an operator that, precisely because of its neutral and independent character, can consolidate long-term collaboration projects with different and diverse telecommunications operator clients that access our infrastructure to deploy their telecommunications networks," he adds.