Nos sells towers to Cellnex. Business can reach 550 million euros

  • ECO News e Lusa
  • 14 April 2020

The Spanish company Cellnex has invested again in Portugal. Two months after doing business with Altice, it has now signed a 15-year agreement with Nos.

Spanish telecommunications infrastructure company Cellnex Telecom has bought all the shares of NOS Towering, the tower operating unit of Portugal’s telecoms company NOS, in a deal that could involve €550 million, with an initial payment of €375 million.

The agreement foresees the acquisition of 100% of NOS Towering and its approximately 2,000 sites, a portfolio of towers 40% of which are located in urban areas, with the rest in suburban and rural areas, throughout Portugal, according to information from Cellnex released through Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

This portfolio now goes to Cellnex, the leading European operator of telecommunication and wireless transmission infrastructures, in a transaction that implies an initial payment of around 375 million euros to Nos, besides an expansion investment of around 175 million euros, “related to the enlargement of its perimeter, as well as other initiatives agreed over the next six years.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Cellnex and NOS signed an initial 15-year contract, renewable for successive additional 15-year periods,” in which the national operator “will continue to use the sites that Cellnex will operate, locating its voice and data signal transmission equipment.”

In addition, “taking into account the needs of the Portuguese market in terms of investment in the mobile network and the growing need for densification distributed throughout the country,” the agreement also foresees an increase in the perimeter to 400 new sites over the next six years.