French Regulator Gives Nod To Iliad Tower Sale

France’s competition authority approved Iliad’s sale of tower assets across France, Switzerland and Italy to subsidiaries of infrastructure company Cellnex.

Under its agreement the operator, which runs mobile services through the Free brand in France and Iliad in Italy, will lease back assets and continue to use them for its own networks.

The deal includes 5,700 towers in France, 2,200 in Italy and 2,800 in Switzerland. The assets outside of France will be held by local subsidiaries of Cellnex Telecom.

In a statement, the Autorite de la Concurrence said the transaction was “not likely to undermine competition on the market for hosting mobile telephony equipment in France.”

It added Cellnex would be unlikely to increase hosting prices due to the “existence of credible, current or potential offers,” citing infrastructure company TDF and SFR subsidiary Hivory as alternatives for operators seeking to buy services.

The sale of various tower and infrastructure assets by Iliad to Cellnex was announced in May and is expected to raise €2 billion, cash expected to be used to help fund continued rollout of 4G and deployment of 5G services.―Mobile World Live