Vodafone Group has revealed more details about the financials and IPO plans of Vantage Towers, a telecom tower company.
Vodafone appointed Vivek Badrinath as the CEO, Thomas Reisten as the CFO and Sonia Hernandez as the CCO of Vantage Towers.
Vivek Badrinath, CEO of Vantage Towers, said: “We have a strong platform to capture growth opportunities in connectivity across Europe, leveraging our long-term arrangements with leading operators.”
Vantage Towers is Europe’s largest and most geographically diversified tower company, with over 68,000 sites across 9 markets. It holds a #1 or #2 market position by sites in almost all of them. It will have a controlling interest in 8 markets: Germany, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary and Ireland.
Vantage Towers will also own a 33.2 percent equity stake in INWIT in Italy, with co-control rights under the terms of a shareholder agreement with Telecom Italia.
The Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure (CTIL) portfolio, with 14,300 sites in the UK, may be added with the inclusion of Vodafone’s 50 percent equity stake in CTIL.
Vodafone aims to retain a majority stake in Vantage Towers post IPO, given the strategic nature of the tower infrastructure and the potential value creation opportunity.
Vantage Towers’ selected FY20 pro forma financial information — Aggregated adjusted EBITDA of €680 million, composed of: − Consolidated Vantage Towers adjusted EBITDA of €523 million (adjusted EBITDA margin of 55 percent); plus − The Group’s 33.2 percent share of INWIT CY19 estimated pro forma adjusted EBITDA of €157 million.
If contributed, the 50 percent shareholding in CTIL would add an estimated FY20 pro forma adjusted EBITDA of €50-70 million on the basis of a 50 percent ownership interest. Consolidated Vantage Towers adjusted OpFCF (adjusted EBITDA less maintenance capital expenditure) of €494 million, yielding cash conversion (adjusted OpFCF over adjusted EBITDA) of 94 percent − Maintenance capital expenditure of €29 million, representing 3 percent of revenue.
