Spanish infrastructure operator Cellnex Telecom has announced a EUR 1.198 billion capital increase to strengthen the group’s resources and fund its further expansion. The capital increase involves the issue of 66.9 million new shares, equivalent to 28.91 percent of its current total, at EUR 17.89 per share. Cellnex said its main shareholders ConnecT (29.9% of the capital) and CriteriaCaixa (6%) have already agreed to subscribe to the issue. The ConnecT investment vehicle backed by the Edizione holding of Italy’s Benetton family (60%) and the sovereign funds of Singapore (20%) and Abu Dhabi (20%) last year committed to spend a further EUR 1.5 billion to support Cellnex’s growth plans.
The move comes after Cellnex indicated at the end of last year that it would be looking to expand its presence in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands this year. Cellnex CEO Tobias Martinez said 2019 would be a "year of activity" for the company, with a priority to "gain size" in the UK and the Netherlands due to the great potential of these markets.
Cellnex recently reported full-year revenues of EUR 901 million in 2018, up 14 percent on the year-earlier result of EUR 792 million. At the end of December the company had a total of 23,440 sites (8,589 in Spain, 8,308 in Italy and 6,543 in the Netherlands, France, the UK and Switzerland), with a further 1,592 DAS and small cell nodes, the latter having grown 18 percent year on year.
