Cellnex (CLNX.MC), headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, reported a total of 109,357 telecom operational towers at the end of 1Q25, down from 112,247 sites in 1Q24. The variance reflects the company’s sale of its operations in Ireland to Phoenix Tower International in 2024, as Inside Towers reported. The company also operates 1,963 broadcast towers along with 13,105 DAS nodes and small cells.
Cellnex has build-to-suit commitments totaling 10,785 through to the end of 2030, bringing its total operating and planned sites to 120,142. With operations in 10 countries, Cellnex remains the largest independent tower company in Europe, ahead of Vodafone’s (NYSE: VOD) Vantage Towers and GD Towers, a DigitalBridge Group (NYSE: DBRG) portfolio company, according to Inside Towers Intelligence.
For the quarter, Cellnex reported revenue of nearly $1.1 billion, up two percent YoY with organic growth up six percent, excluding the contribution of tower sales in Ireland and Austria. Adjusted EBITDA of $887 million increased by three percent YoY and was up nearly eight percent organically on the strength of its wireless carrier customers adding new points of presence (PoPs) on its towers.
PoP organic growth was up over four percent YoY, a combination of new placements on existing sites, particularly in Poland and France, and the balance from activating new sites. For the quarter, Cellnex reported 1,216 new BTS sites and 1,109 new colocations. Its total tower tenancy ratio came in at 1.59, up from 1.57 in 1Q24.
EBITDA after leases or EBITDAaL was $629 million, up six percent YoY and close to nine percent on an organic basis which management attributed to “discipline in managing operating expenses and leases.”
Cellnex reiterated its midpoint guidance of $4.4 billion in revenues for 2025, growing to $4.9 billion by 2027. It is projecting Adjusted EBITDA of nearly $3.7 billion for 2025, and more than $3.7 billion by 2027.
During its 1Q25 earnings calls, Cellnex senior management highlighted that the company does not expect any impact from the current tariff discussions between the European Union and the U.S. Cellnex pointed out that it has long-term B2B contracts with clients in place, with a complete EU domestic focus and the majority of its revenues are linked to inflation or fixed escalators. Moreover, Cellnex said it expects no impact on capital expenditure since none of its equipment and material is U.S.-sourced.
“Despite the geopolitical turbulence, we continue to fulfill every one of our objectives, starting with solid operational execution resulting from our industrial focus on efficiencies and organic growth, which were reflected in the key indicators for the period,” comments Marco Patuano, Cellnex CEO.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
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