Cellnex eyes up Antin's towers, declares interest in Telxius

Cellnex Telecom SA is bidding on French towers being sold by Antin Infrastructure Partners and would consider buying into Telefonica SA’s infrastructure unit, Bloomberg has reported Cellnex CEO Tobias Martinez as saying.

Talking at a conference last week, Martinez is reported as saying: “That’s a very attractive portfolio in a market like France and we are in a competitive process.”

Cellnex is interested in Telefonica’s infrastructure assets, Martinez said. The Spanish phone carrier is considering selling stakes in the business, which contains towers and undersea cable assets, according to Bloomberg. Telxius Telecom SA’s recent flotation was abruptly cancelled a few weeks ago.

“We would be more than happy to start talking with them if Telefonica reassesses its strategy,” Martinez said.

Cellnex, which operates tower systems, has been growing recently and expects to complete the purchase of the second phase of 500 towers from France’s Bouygues Telecom SA this month.

In general, the company is looking across Europe and seeks control of infrastructure assets so it can squeeze better returns from them, Martinez said.. 

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Cellnex offered about 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) for all of Telecom Italia SpA’s mobile wireless tower unit Inwit. While the deal was rejected, Cellnex has made it clear the portfolio is still attractive, and Italy is a key revenue-generating market in which it is investing heavily.