Cellnex sells 1,100 UK sites to satisfy regulator
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Cellnex sells 1,100 UK sites to satisfy regulator

Cellnex towers.jpg

Cellnex has agreed to sell 1,100 sites in the UK to Wireless Infrastructure Group (WIG) as part of its plans to buy 6,000 passive infrastructure sites in the UK from CK Hutchison for US$4 billion.

The Competitions and Markets Authority had set the sale of around 1,000 Cellnex towers in the UK as one of its conditions to approve the planned acquisition.

Cellnex says it now expects the transaction with WIG to be completed by the end of the year.

"The divestiture agreement reached with WIG allows us to meet the conditions required by the UK Competition and Markets Authority and to proceed to complete the UK CK Hutchison transaction, the last of the deals announced in November 2020 to integrate the global CK Hutchison’s telecommunications sites in six European countries," said Àlex Mestre, deputy CEO of Cellnex Telecom.

The completion of Cellnex’s acquisition of CK Hutchison’s UK business is expected to take place in early to mid-November.

After the approval of that deal in March, Tobias Martinez, Cellnex CEO said: “The combined agreements with CK Hutchison not only strengthen our position as a key pan-European operator, but also reinforce our partnerships with our customers and open up new opportunities and approaches for collaboration.

“Fundamentally, this rationalisation of infrastructure will create the required incentives to unlock, improve and extend mobile coverage, including 5G, across these key markets.”

Cellnex has been active in recent months regarding M&A activity in the UK. The company agreed to acquire distributed antenna system provider Herbert In-Building a few weeks ago.

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