France: Iliad-Cellnex towers deal cleared

France’s competition regulator has authorized the acquisition by Spanish operator Cellnex Telecom of Iliad 7, the French operator’s mobile towers subsidiary, without conditions.

In a statement, France’s antitrust authority said the deal announced back in May is unlikely to affect competition in the market for hosting mobile telephony equipment in the country. “Given the existence of credible, current (including SFR’s subsidiary Hivory and TDF) and potential alternatives, Cellnex will not have any incentive to increase hosting prices or degrade the quality of services provided to MNOs following the transaction,” said the regulator.

The transaction covers 5,700 sites in France, which Cellnex will subsequently rent to Iliad, as well as 2,200 towers in Italy plus a further 2,800 sites in Switzerland. Cellnex said it agreed to pay Iliad an initial EUR 2 billion for the operator’s French and Italian towers portfolio plus EUR 700 million for Iliad’s Salt TowerCo unit in Switzerland.

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