The CEO of Cellnex, Marco Patuano has today unveiled the company’s roadmap for Spain, which does not include a return of the headquarters in Catalonia and does include participation in the process of consolidating the tower market in the country and the creation in Spain of its vehicle to acquire land, baptized as Celland.
“We have no plans (to return to Catalonia). This is a long-term project. What matters is stability,” said the president of the Board of Directors, Anne Bouverot in a press conference at the general meeting of shareholders of the Ibex35 company held this Friday in Madrid.
The mathematics for the company’s management team are clear: With the merger of Orange and MsMvil, There are only three large operators with a network for four tower companiesso one of them will end up not getting the bills.
“The market that is consolidating on the part of the operators, I imagine that it will also do so on the part of the tower companies,” said Patuano, who recognized that the situation is in a “very preliminary” status and it will take time, since the companies that operate in Spain are industrial players and not investment funds that have to sell to generate returns.
On the horizon is the creation of the MasOrange network, which Patuano expects to be very “powerful” and that of Digi, a smaller infrastructure, but for whose accommodation the Spanish company is already negotiating.
Along with Cellnex, three other companies operate in the tower market: Totemwith the sites originally of Orange, Vantage Towerwhich has those of Vodafone, and American Towerwhich acquired the Telefnica towers.
“We do an analysis of the portfolio important. The times change. Although they see us restructuring the portfolio, If an opportunity suddenly arises in Spain, it does not necessarily have to be a reduction,” he points out.
LANDS AND REFINANCING
Beyond the possible pieces that are going to move on the Spanish board, Patuano has also given more details about the company’s movements in the next year.
On the one hand, the subsidiary to buy the land where they have their towers announced in the presentation of the strategic plan already has a name: Celland. The company to be domiciled in Spain and it remains to be defined whether land already owned by the company is included in its balance sheet.
On the other hand, there is a debt refinancing process that has two objectives: to increase the amount of debt at a fixed rate (it already represents 75% of the group’s liabilities) and to lower the long-term interest rate paid on it, once the investment grade has been achieved. Patuano has set the refinancing at around 1.3 billion euros.
In inorganic matters, after the announcement of a possible extraordinary dividend if the Austria towers are sold, Patuano has indicated that there is no rush to close the operation: “We will sell Austria if there is an adequate price. If not, we will not sell,” he stated.
However, he acknowledged that the share price is low, which also makes it more attractive to undertake share buybacks. “Buying our shares for 31, 32 or 35 euros is still a good deal. It is investing in us,” said the manager, who noted that The price of all tower companies remains closely linked to the US bondwhich has motivated the acceleration of shareholder remuneration plans.
The manager also wanted to get out of financial aspects to emphasize the organic growth in income and the speed of deployment of the group: “Analysts forget about the industrial work we are doing. It is impressive,” he said.