Linklaters advises CK Hutchison on the EUR 10bn sale of its telecommunications towers in Europe

Linklaters has advised CK Hutchison, the Hong Kong based conglomerate, on the €10bn sale of its large portfolio of telecommunications towers assets in Europe to Cellnex, the Spanish telecoms infrastructure company.

The carved-out business unit – CK Hutchison Networks – comprises 25,000 sites across six European countries. The acquisition unlocks the value of CK Hutchison’s European telecommunications towers assets while accelerating the roll out of 5G across its networks. It will further support Cellnex’s network expansion following the £2bn takeover of Arqiva’s mobile arm earlier this year, on which Linklaters advised the sellers.

CK Hutchison is the latest mobile network operator to carve-out mast infrastructure to reduce debt and raise funds to invest in 5G network upgrades.

Rob Cleaver, Corporate M&A Partner (London) commented:

“We expect further towers deals to follow as MNOs and other owners seek to capitalise on the significant valuations currently placed on telecoms infrastructure and investors look for opportunities to pursue long-term returns and growth, with demand for masts expected to surge due to 5G.”

The Linklaters multi-jurisdictional transaction team was led by Rob Cleaver (corporate partner, London), supported by Owen Clay (corporate partner, London),  Jane Cai (corporate managing associate, London), Marly Didizian (TMT partner, London), Rich Jones (TMT managing associate, London), Julian Davies (SFG partner, London) and Aditi Srivastava (SFG managing associate, London), Alejandro Ortiz (corporate partner, Madrid), Chris Yip (corporate partner, Hong Kong), Chris Smale (tax partner, London) and Elisabet Lundgren (corporate partner, Stockholm).

This deal represents the latest in a long line of digital infrastructure deals on which Linklaters has advised. Recent deals include advising Arqiva on the £2bn sale of its towers business to Cellnex, Digital Colony Partners on the acquisition of Highline, an independent infrastructure solutions provider for the telecommunications industry in Brazil and the winning Consortium on their acquisition of a 49.99% stake in SFR FTTH, Altice’s fibre to the home business.