Cellnex acquired the Telecoms unit of Arqiva for 2,000M GBP. The Spanish company reached an agreement with Arqiva to acquire c.7,400 new locations and the commercialization rights of c. 900 locations throughout the United Kingdom.
The operation is subject to competition authorizations, and is planned for the second half of 2020. It will be financed with a 2,000 MGBP bridge loan and cash, and subsequently will increase capital by € 2,500 million. For this, 86.7M of new shares will be issued at a price of € 28.85 / share.
“The operation makes strategic sense, since Cellnex achieves critical mass in the United Kingdom where it will now have c.8,000 locations since 828, becoming one of the main markets of the company along with Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland. However this is a capital increase that represents 22% of its market capitalization and that will be carried out with a 19.6% discount on the theoretical price without rights (€ 35.87 based on the price of quotation on Monday € 37.91). Therefore, we expect the news to have a negative impact on the price. We reiterate our recommendation to Sell, which we will review after the operation,” Bankinter analysts commented.
