- Telxius will acquire 1,909 towers from Telefónica Brasil (Vivo) for R$ 641 million.
- Once the acquisition is complete, Telxius’ portfolio will exceed 20,000 towers in the six countries where it operates, growing 20% since the end of 2018.
- Throughout 2019, Telxius has acquired approx. 3,000 towers in Brazil, Spain, Peru and Chile.
- The volume of new tower construction projects (BTS) exceeds 1,000.
Madrid, 29 November 2019.- Telxius has reached an agreement with Telefónica Brasil (Vivo), the leading telecommunications operator in the Brazilian market, for the acquisition of 1,909 sites in Brazil. With this agreement, Telxius will double its current portfolio, reaching 3,850 owned sites and confirming its position as one of the main neutral infrastructure operators in the country.
The agreement, which is subject to the required approvals from the antitrust authority, amounts to a total value of R$ 641 million, approximately 140 million euros, to be financed from the company’s own cash flow generation, as was the case in the prior acquisitions executed throughout 2019.
The acquired portfolio has a fundamentally urban profile, 82% of the total, with 52% of the acquired towers are located in Brazil’s main cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. This attractive location, coupled with its current tenancy ratio of 1.10x, results into high growth potential for these new sites.
This acquisition will allow Telxius to significantly strengthen its presence in Brazil’s urban areas, where mobile operators will presumably concentrate their efforts for the improvement of mobile broadband coverage and the future deployment of 5G.
Since its creation in 2016, Telxius Torres Brazil has experienced a remarkable growth thanks to its excellent relationship with the main telecommunications operators and its exceptional operational capabilities in the country. During 2019, close to 50% of the new towers built (BTS, built-to-suit) by Telxius in Brazil have been commissioned by operators other than the Telefónica Group.
The approximately 3,000 new sites acquired during 2019 in Brazil, Peru, Chile and Spain, together with the acceleration of the construction of new towers commissioned by customers (410 new BTS built by the end of October 2019, +60% year-on-year) result in Telxius featuring a broad portfolio of over 20,000 sites globally. Approximately 70% of them are located in Europe (Spain and Germany) and the remaining 30% in Latin America (Brazil, Peru, Chile and Argentina).
Telxius has a pipeline of over 1,000 new towers (BTS) commissioned by 13 different clients in the six markets where the company currently operates, providing a sustainable growth profile for the coming years.
This remarkable portfolio growth effectively combines with the strong increase in the number of colocated third parties throughout the year (+11% year-on-year as of 30 September 2019) which has led to + 8.8% organic revenue growth in the tower business in the first nine months of 2019, year-on-year.
Mario Martín, CEO of Telxius, said: “The quality of the acquired assets, with a high presence in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and the resulting size of our operations in the market, provides us with an excellent platform in Brazil, a market which presents one of the highest growth expectations in telecommunications infrastructure globally. This transaction complements our recent reinforcement of our leadership position in Spain and Peru and the strengthening of our operations in Chile, all executed this year”.