Vodafone to transfer its 50% shareholding in JV Cornerstone to Vantage Towers

The operator group is taking another step to execute its tower strategy announced last year.

Vodafone Group’s UK subsidiary, Vodafone Limited and Telefonica UK Limited have announce the commercialisation of their Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited. Sometimes referred to as CTIL, the company is 50:50 owned joint venture between the two which owns and manages their passive tower infrastructure in the UK.

Preferred supplier

Vodafone UK and Telefonica UK have each entered into long-term Master Services Agreements (MSA) with Cornerstone, which have initial terms of eight years from 1 January 2021, with three, eight-year renewal periods, and which establish Cornerstone as a preferred supplier of new sites for both operators.
 
Vodafone intends to transfer its 50% shareholding in Cornerstone to its new Vantage Towers arm in January 2021. 
 
Corner is the biggest passive infrastructure operating company in the UK with about 14,200 macro sites and approximately 1,400 micro sites. The addition of the 50% shareholding in Cornerstone extends Vantage Towers’ portfolio to about 82,000 macro sites and its geographic presence in Europe to 10 markets, with leading positions in nine of them.

More details here.
 
Vivek Badrinath, Vantage Towers Chief Executive, commented, “Cornerstone is a great addition to the Vantage Towers portfolio. Cornerstone is exactly the type of high quality grid we like to own: a number one market position, and two strong anchor tenants with network sharing agreements in place for whom we are the preferred supplier.

“We look forward to working with our anchor tenants to power the UK’s digital transformation, enabling the roll-out of 5G networks to benefit business and consumers and ensuring greater mobile coverage for all.”