Vodafone CEO Says Conditions Favorable for European Cell Tower Expansion

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“Tower assets…provide a good return on investment, quality anchor tenants, and demand is very high,” said Nick Read, Vodafone Group PLC CEO. Read was commenting specifically on an IPO of the company’s European cell towers portfolio, reports S&P Global Market Intelligence. 

During a recent media teleconference, Read told his audience that the U.K. spin-off venture would soon be listed on either the London or Frankfurt stock exchange. He added that despite the pandemic, the listings were “very much on track” for early 2021. Vodafone has its strongest presence in Germany, which hosts the largest share of the company’s 60,000 cell towers. 

Vodafone which, offers bundled fixed and mobile plans, will face a major competitor with the merger of Liberty Global PLC and Telefónica SA. Asked if he was considering the acquisition of Virgin Media, Read supplied some information, but remained non-committal. Vodafone would concentrate on the enterprise side of the market, he said, rather than relying on “very low” rates of client convergence in the U.K. 

Broadband usage jumped from 18.8 million users to over 25 million users in 2019, with prospects of continued growth. Vodafone itself reported revenue of over $49 billion USD, up 3 percent from the previous year. The Operating profit, which reported a loss of just over a billion dollars in 2018, showed a profit of $4,475,927,225 U.S. for 2019.  So far, the first quarter of 2020 shows promising gains as well, with results up 4.3 percent.  

Looking forward, Read said that Vodafone would likely offer an internet-connected TV offering to their U.K. subscribers. Competition for the streaming services business in that region has been dominated by U.S. providers, like Netflix. He cited little room for growth in that market, and did not offer a timetable for when his own company would enter the fray. 

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