Italy Starts Antitrust Probe Over Cellnex Buying Hutchinson Towers

Italy’s competition watchdog announced on Monday, April 12, it had launched an inquiry into Spanish Cellnex’s acquisition of CK Hutchinson’s mobile tower assets in Italy, citing antitrust concerns.

Last November Cellnex announced a €10 billion (US$11.92 billion) deal to buy 24,600 Hutchinson’s towers in Italy, Austria, Denmark, United Kingdom, and Sweden.

Cellnex will make an initial payment of about €8.6 billion in cash, with the rest paid with new shares, giving CK Hutchison a 5% stake in Cellnex, according to filings from the companies.

CK Hutchison is the latest mobile network operator to carve out mast infrastructure to cut debt and help pay for costly 5G network upgrades. The deal will add around 24,600 new towers to Cellnex’s existing 60,000 sites, with Cellnex committing to invest about €1.4 billion to deploy 5,250 more masts by 2030. 

Several large European phone companies are at various stages of setting up their own tower companies to boost their value and draw in new investment. Unlike CK Hutchison, many plan to keep majority control of the infrastructure, which they see as strategically important.

The probe should be wrapped up within 45 days, the regulator added.

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