Spanish operator Cellnex Telecom said its board of directors agreed to execute a new capital increase amounting to EUR 4 billion at the company’s recent general shareholders' meeting. In a statement to Spain’s securities market regulator CNMV, the Spanish operator confirmed that the proceeds from the capital hike will be used to bolster the company's own resources in order to undertake new expansions of its European infrastructure portfolio.
The share capital increase, with preferential subscription rights for current shareholders, will be made through the issuance of approximately 101,382,140 ordinary shares at a price of EUR 39.45 for each new share. Cellnex added that it’s “actively analysing market opportunities” for an aggregate amount of up to EUR 11 billion.
Cellnex is already Europe’s largest mobile towers company with 40,505 operative sites at the end of June (10,313 in Spain, 10,356 in Italy, 9,411 in France, 922 in the Netherlands, 611 in the UK, 5,272 in Switzerland, 601 in Ireland and 3,019 in Portugal), plus a further 2,090 nodes (DAS and small cells). Last year it increased its own resources by EUR 3.7 billion via two separate capital hikes to fund acquisitions in France and Italy (Iliad), Switzerland (Salt), the UK (BT), Ireland (Cignal) and Spain (Orange), as well as the purchase of Omtel in Portugal.
Since its IPO in May 2015, the operator has announced investments and commitments to invest amounting to around EUR 14.1 billion for the acquisition or construction of up to 50,400 towers on top of the 10,400 or so sites that the company had at that time, allowing it to extend its operations to eight European markets.
