Spanish telecom company Telefonica plans to sell their mobile phone masts. Owned by its Telxius division in both Europe and Latin America, they’ll be selling it to American Towers for a whopping 7.7 billion euros, which is the equivalent to approximately $9.41 billion.
The 30,000 mobile phone masts included in the deal are located within Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Peru, and Spain. While American Towers will own the masts, they are expected to lease them back to Telefonica for their original use.
CEO José María Álvarez-Pallete explained that this deal will enable Telefonica to focus on “more ambitious goals”. These goals include merging its O2 brand-run British operations with Virgin Media, as well as acquiring mobile assets that belong to Brazilian carrier Oi.
This deal is also expected to reduce Telefonica’s current financial debt by up to 4.6 billion euros. As for American Towers, the sale is expected to provide the company with a foothold in the European market, which has become particularly lucrative with a massive 5G rollout in the works. This should allow American Towers to close in on industry leader and main European competitor Cellnex.
