Altice Europe sells Portuguese tower stake to Cellnex for €200m

Cable and telecom giant Altice Europe’s Portuguese unit Meo has sold its 25% stake in cellular tower company Omtel to Cellnex for €200 million as the first step in the independent Spanish tower company taking complete control of Omtel.

Altice sold a majority stake in Omtel to a consortium led by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Horizon Equity Partners last year, and reinvested €108.8 million for a 25% equity stake at the time of that deal.

Altice has also announced a long-term partnership with Cellnex around the provision of hosting services over mobile passive infrastructure as well as the construction of new sites.

The overall acquisition of Omtel by Cellnex values the Portuguese tower company at €800 million.

The sale of the Omtel stake follows Meo’s formation of a fibre partnership with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners at the end of last year. MEO agreed to sell a stake of 49.99% in Altice Portugal FTTH, based on a value of €4.63 billion, to create a nationwide fibre wholesaler.

Altice had previously agreed a similar deal in France, whereby its SFR FTTH outfit, alongside its consortium of financial investors led by OMERS Infrastructure and including Allianz Capital Partners and AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets entered into an exclusive agreement with Cube Infrastructure Fund and Partners Group, acting on behalf of its clients, to acquire fibre wholesaler Covage.

In October, UK broadcast and telecom transmission service outfit Arqiva struck a deal with Cellnex for the sale of its telecoms infrastructure and related assets at an enterprise value of £2 billion.