In June last year, American Tower had closed the first tranche of the acquisition of Telxius Towers, comprised of nearly 20,000 communications sites in Germany and Spain
American Tower Corporation (ATC) ended June with nearly 30,000 telecommunications sites across its European footprint, the company’s President and CEO Tom Bartlett said during a conference call with investors.
“We have a portfolio of over 30,000 sites and strong scaled positions in Germany and Spain which are benefiting from many of the same trends, driving strong growth in the United States, including the early stage of 5G rollouts and a new entrant. As many of you know, we’ve taken a consistently measured approach to achieving scale in the continent. We started through a modest acquisition in Germany in 2012,” the executive said.
“We then spent the better part of the following decade evaluating various opportunities through our disciplined approach to capital allocation, which led to our entry into France in 2017 and later a small-scale entry to Poland. However, it wasn’t until the Telxius transaction in 2021 that we found an opportunity to add significant scale through a portfolio that met the standards of our global underwriting framework,” Bartlett added.
He also said that American Tower has been experiencing accelerating activity across Germany and Spain in recent quarters as carriers begin lighting up low and mid-band spectrum with new 5G equipment while continuing to invest to support growth data consumption on their existing 4G networks. “At the same time, in Germany, new entrant 1&1 is rolling out a greenfield 5G network, and we believe our portfolio of nearly 15,000 sites primarily located in urban centers across the country is in a strong position to support their network build,” Bartlett pointed out. “Earlier this year, we signed a framework agreement with 1&1 through which we can provide value to the carrier while benefiting from incremental growth associated with the relationship for many years to come. As a result of these factors, we’re seeing strong leasing activity on our assets, as well as demand for new builds, particularly in white and gray spot areas where carriers are working to meet coverage requirements and provide critical connectivity in areas that have historically been underserved.”
Bartlett also said that the company aims to build approximately 400 new sites across Europe during 2022.
In June of last year, American Tower Corporation closed the first tranche of the acquisition of Telxius Towers, comprised of nearly 20,000 communications sites in Germany and Spain, for total consideration of approximately 6.2 billion euros Approximately 4,000 additional rooftop communications sites in Germany were expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.
In January 2021, Spanish telecom operator Telefónica’s subsidiary Telxius Telecom had signed an agreement with American Tower Corporation for the sale of its telecommunications towers businesses in Europe and Latin America.
The agreement involves 30,722 telecommunication tower sites and covers two separate and independent transactions: One for the European division and another for the business in Latin America. Telxius has telecommunications towers in Spain, Germany, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
American Tower ended the second quarter of 2021 with a portfolio of approximately 222,000 communications sites.
The company reported overall revenues of $2.67 billion for the second quarter of 2022, surging 16.3% year-on-year. American Tower’s profits for the period amounted to $891 million, up 19.1% compared to the second quarter of 2021.