Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison sells its European wireless towers to Spain’s Cellnex for US$11.7 billion

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The company, which is run by Li’s son Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, will sell 25,000 tower sites in the UK, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Ireland, it announced late on Thursday

The firm said it is considering using some of the proceeds for share buy-back programmes, which would boost the price of its stock

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The company said it will sell 25,000 tower sites in the UK, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Ireland. Photo: Shutterstock

Pearl Liu

Published: 9:39pm, 12 Nov 2020Updated: 10:40pm, 12 Nov 2020

Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings will sell its European wireless towers business for €10 billion (US$11.7 billion), with some of the gains earmarked for a potential share buy-back to boost its stock price.

The company, which is run by Li’s son Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, will sell 25,000 tower sites in the UK, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Ireland, to Spanish mobile towers operator Cellnex Telecom, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange late on Thursday.

The company said it is considering using some of the proceeds for “on-market share buy-back programs”, after the completion of the deal, without giving specific figures.

The practice of rebuying shares usually leads to a surge in a company’s share price.

The sale of the towers will “unlock the value of the group’s telecommunications division, which the company believes has not been fully reflected in its share price in recent years,” CK Hutchison said in the filing.

The total value of the sale is €10 billion, including €1.4 billion in the form of a 5 per cent stake of new shares in Cellnex.