UPDATE Cellnex Telecom has withdrawn its offer to acquire a stake in Deutsche Telekom’s tower portfolio, according to Mobile World Live. Cellnex’s action reportedly leaves a consortium led by KKR as the sole bidder.
In a statement to its domestic stock market regulator, CNMV, the Barcelona, Spain-headquartered tower company explained it had dropped out of the race for Deutsche Telekom’s assets in Germany and Austria.
Last week, reports suggested KKR had emerged as the frontrunner to invest in those tower assets. The U.S. investor made an offer with investment participation from Global Infrastructure Partners and Stonepeak. KKR’s offer was deemed more attractive than a joint rival proposal from Cellnex and Brookfield Asset Management.
Reuters reported Cellnex had offered Deutsche Telekom a small stake in its own tower business as part of a binding offer. However, the KKR bid reportedly allows the mobile network operator to retain control of its tower portfolio, while giving the investor some say over corporate governance.
Deutsche Telekom commenced the process of selling its 40,600 towers in March, with the idea of maximizing the value of its infrastructure assets, worth an estimated $20 billion. Roughly 33,000 of those towers are situated in Germany and are directly managed by DT subsidiary, Deutsche Funkturm.
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