Spanish operator Cellnex Telecom, Europe’s largest mobile towers company, reported revenues up 53 percent year on year to EUR 1.15 billion in the 9 months to end of September, with EBITDA surging 68 percent to EUR 838 million after consolidating assets acquired in 2019 in France and Italy (Iliad), Switzerland (Salt), the UK (Arqiva), Ireland (Cignal) and Spain (Orange), as well as the purchase of OMTEL in Portugal (3,000 sites) and the recent acquisition of 7,000 Polish sites from Iliad. On the back of these results, the company confirmed the upwardly revised guidance it issued in July of full-year EBITDA amounting to EUR 1.16-1.18 billion from a previous estimate of EUR 1.065-1.085 billion and free and recurring cash flow (RLFCF) of around 70 percent for 2020 versus an initial estimate of 50 percent.
Cellnex also reiterated that the financial costs of its expansion and higher amortisation prompted a net loss during the period of EUR 84 million compared to a EUR 12 million loss a year earlier, with the company adding that it expects to “continue to record negative net results in the coming quarters”. The Barcelona-based operator did not comment on reported negotiations to acquire CK Hutchison’s European mobile tower business for around EUR 9 billion but confirmed that it “continues to analyse a range of projects involving investments of up to EUR 11 billion” following its successful EUR 4 billion rights issue in August.
Turning to business lines, infrastructure services for mobile telecommunications operators contributed 78 percent of total income in the first 9 months of the year, to the tune of EUR 898 million, up 77 percent year on year, while broadcasting services and infrastructure contributed EUR 172 million, or 15 percent of income. The segment comprising the company’s security and emergency service networks as well as its smart cities business contributed EUR 78 million, or 7 percent of revenues during the January to September period. Total investments came to EUR 3.59 billion compared to nearly EUR 4 billion in 2019 as a whole.
Cellnex said some 65 percent of its revenue and 73 percent of EBITDA now come from outside the Spanish market, with Italy still the company’s second largest market, accounting for 22 percent of group revenues. In total the company had 50,185 operative sites at the end of June (10,313 in Spain, 10,356 in Italy, 9,687 in France, 924 in the Netherlands, 7,996 in the UK, 5,277 in Switzerland, 621 in Ireland and 5,011 in Portugal), plus a further 2,707 nodes (DAS and small cells), the latter up 20 percent year on year. Points of Presence (PoPs) rose 5 percent year on year while the customer ratio per site was up 3 percent.
