“The growth opportunity in Europe is considerable, as the roll out of 5G accelerates and mobile operators look to expand their networks to manage ever increasing data traffic. I am very pleased with the commercial momentum we are building at Vantage Towers.
Customers are appreciating the high quality of our grid and their response to our focused commercial approach is encouraging. This underscores our confidence in our tenancy targets,” said Vivek Badrinath (pictured), chief executive at Vantage Towers.
The news comes as the company recently published its Q3 update and follows its recent acquisition of a 50% stake in Cornerstone, a UK’s tower company.
The company also reported a strong commercial performance with the addition of approximately 1,400 new tenancies in first 9 months of FY21 to 31 December 2020, including around 500 previously non-committed tenancies.
“Adding Cornerstone, the UK's number one tower company, to our portfolio in early January was a significant step. Cornerstone is a great addition – it's a market leader, with broad and dense coverage, providing services to two market leaders who already have a network sharing agreement in place,” added Badrinath.
It also confirmed the addition of close to 450 new macro sites in first 9 months of FY21 and is on track to reaching approximately 550 new sites by 31 March 2021. In addition, Vantage also signed New agreements with Eir and Three in Ireland, AOTEC in Spain and a IoT contract with Sigfox Germany.
Much progress has been made in its programme to optimise ground leases through buyouts or renegotiation, with the pilots currently in progress in 6 countries “showing encouraging results”.
Earlier this year Vantage also appointed its Supervisory Board with strong mix of sector, financial, technical and M&A backgrounds.
“In January, we also finalised the appointments for our Supervisory Board, securing members with deep towers, entrepreneurial and M&A experience, alongside world class governance and technical expertise,” continued Badrinath.
Looking ahead, Vantage says it is on course to meet its FY21 pro forma guidance and medium-term targets of €520-530 million (£453 - £462 million).
