Altice to net €70M from Cellnex
Altice Portugal is to sell more of its telecommunications antenna towers to Spanish company Cellnex Telecom, Europe’s largest operator of wireless telecommunications infrastructures.
The fresh sell-off comes just months after Altice sold 700 towers to the group for €209 million.
However, this time the sale will not be direct, but via a new company called Hivory Portugal, the Portuguese subsidiary of Hivory France which is also owned by Cellnex.
Cellnex Telecom completed the purchase of 100% of Hivory from Altice France and Starlight Holdco in 2021. Hivory manages the 10,500 sites that mainly serve the French mobile phone operator SFR. The agreement represented an investment of €5.2Bn by Cellnex, which was accompanied by an eight-year programme totalling approximately €900 million for the roll-out of up to 2,500 new sites, among other projects.
Hivory will receive the portfolio of assets from MEO worth €70 million. Apart from the telecoms masts, equipment and associated structures, the deal also includes some contracts linked to them.
Altice Portugal told the online news source ECO “this operation is part of the overall agreement that had been signed in 2021 with Cellnex Portugal”.