Advertisement
Britain gives conditional approval for sale of CK Hutchison’s UK tower assets to Cellnex Telecom in US$4 billion deal
- Approval is conditional on Cellnex completing the sale of certain of its existing sites to an independent third party
- Deal unlocks value in our telecoms assets to our shareholders, CK Hutchison’s Canning Fok says
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Britain’s competition watchdog has approved CK Hutchison Holdings’ sale of its tower assets in the United Kingdom to Spanish mobile telephone infrastructure operator Cellnex Telecom in a deal valued at about €3.7 billion (US$4 billion).
Advertisement
The approval is conditional on Cellnex completing the sale of certain of its existing sites to an independent third party, CK Hutchison, which is chaired by Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, said in a statement on Friday. Cellnex will pay CK Hutchison in cash and shares, it added.
“CK Hutchison and Cellnex will proceed to complete the UK tower transaction as soon as possible, once this requirement has been satisfied,” it said.
CK Hutchison Networks, a unit of CK Hutchison, agreed to sell its tower assets and businesses in Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and the UK to Cellnex in 2020 for a total consideration of €10 billion. The deal was structured in six separate transactions, one for each country. The sales in Austria, Denmark and Ireland were completed in 2020, while those in Italy and Sweden were completed last year.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), however, said in December last year that the sale of CK Hutchison’s business to Cellnex would raise significant competition concerns.
Advertisement
Advertisement