News
The divestment will reduce the operator’s stake in the towerco to around 25%
Today, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has announced that it will sell an 8.33% stake in mobile towers company Cornerstone to infrastructure investor Equitix.
The deal, which is facilitated by the sale of a 16.6% stake in a holding company, will see VMO2 receive £186 million upon completion.
The stake sale is subject to typical regulatory approvals.
Cornerstone is the UK’s largest tower company, formed in 2012 as a 50:50 joint venture between Telefonica (O2) ad Vodafone. According to the company website, Cornerstone currently operates around 15,700 sites in the UK (the VMO2 press release says ‘around 20,000’) and has a market share of 35%.
Virgin Media has been slowly divesting in Cornerstone for a number of years now. Last year, the company sold a 16.7% stake to GLIL Infrastructure LLP for £360 million. Today’s sale to Equitix follows that same trend, leaving VMO2 with a 25.01% stake in Cornerstone.
“This additional minority stake sale follows the same logic and strategic rationale as our previous deal, allowing us to successfully monetise our infrastructure while retaining a controlling share in an important asset,” explained VMO2 CEO Lutz Schüler. “Equitix is another strong partner to have onboard that clearly sees the long-term value in Cornerstone at a time when we are investing billions of pounds to enhance 4G coverage and bring 5G to new areas of the country.”
The news comes alongside the announcement of VMO2’s Q3 results, which saw the company post a 2.4% drop in revenue, which the company attributed to a fall in handset sales in the UK.
EBITDA also fell 4.1% year-on-year.
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