Virgin Media O2 has agreed to sell close to one tenth of its holdings in Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited to infrastructure investor Equitix, Financial Times reported. Virgin Media O2 currently owns about a third of Cornerstone, while Vodafone-backed (NASDAQ: VOD) Vantage Towers owns 50 percent. Cornerstone operates the largest tower company in the U.K. with 15,464 sites as of the end of 1Q24, according to TowerXchange. The towerco counts both Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone UK as anchor tenants.
Mobile network operators in recent years have sold full or partial holdings in their tower businesses to raise capital for funding network investments and cut debt. By selling this portion of its Cornerstone holdings, Virgin Media O2 could raise around $200-213 million after which the MNO will still own more than 25 percent of the tower company, according to sources. This sale would follow Virgin Media O2’s disposal of a 16.67 percent holding in Cornerstone to London-based GLIL Infrastructure, a partnership of U.K. pension funds, for about $480 million in October 2023, Inside Towers reported.
Virgin Media O2, which is jointly owned by Liberty Global (NASDAQ: LBTYA) and Spain’s Telefónica (NYSE: TEF), has been looking for a multiple in the current transaction similar to the 18.7x EBITDAaL (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, but after lease obligations) achieved in the deal with GLIL, according to Financial Times. Lutz Schüler, chief executive of Virgin Media O2, said at the time of the GLIL sale that the company was “partially monetizing our tower infrastructure, while retaining operational and strategic co-control in a key asset.”
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
Reader Interactions