The UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has raised concerns about the purchase by Cellnex of CK Hutchison’s mobile tower infrastructure in the UK. CK Hutchison is the parent company of mobile operator 3 Group. It agreed to sell its European tower business to Cellnex in November, for a total of EUR 10 billion.
In the UK, the CMA said the transaction could lower competition on the market, resulting in higher prices or lower quality services for network operations and mobile network users. The CMA noted Cellnex is by far the largest independent supplier of mobile towers in the UK, following its acquisition of Arqiva’s telecom division in 2020. This latest agreement with 3 UK will further strengthen its position on the market.
The CMA said CK Hutchison, when looking for a buyer for its passive infrastructure assets, could have sold them to another one, rather than existing market leader Cellnex. This would have increased the competition that Cellnex faces at present, the CMA said.
Cellnex and CK Hutchison now have five working days to offer legally-binding proposals to the CMA, to address the competition concerns identified. The CMA will then five 5 working days to consider the terms, or refer the case to a Phase 2 investigation.
Cellnex's acquisitions of 3 Group assets have since closed in Italy, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Ireland. Cellnex also cut a deal with Deutsche Telekom in January to combine tower assets in the Netherlands. In Poland, Cellnext closed the acquisition of 7,000 Play sites in April.
