Marco Patuano, chief executive of Cellnex, Europe’s largest mobile phone tower operator, said that recent market turbulence following the Middle East conflict has made large-scale consolidation in the tower industry less likely in the near term.
Speaking in an interview, Patuano said he was receptive to revisiting a sale of Cellnex’s Swiss operations, a process that was suspended last year after bids failed to meet the company's expectations. "Nothing in our portfolio is untouchable," he said, provided any potential transaction comes with an acceptable offer.
He added that the timing for combination deals depends on calmer financial conditions. "In order to make consolidation, you need that the environmental conditions, financial markets, are okay, and this is not very much the case today," Patuano said, highlighting the link between market stability and the feasibility of large deals.
Patuano has previously discussed the possibility of reviving his predecessor’s 2022 effort to acquire Deutsche Telekom’s towers business, now trading under the name GD Towers. He said he has not had recent discussions with the German group about that opportunity.
The Cellnex chief argued that consolidation among tower companies remains an important structural development for the sector, particularly if transactions such as the joint bid by French telecom groups Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Free for rival SFR lead to a smaller pool of mobile network operator clients for tower firms across Europe.
He warned that the fallout of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is likely to show up mainly through financing channels because Cellnex carries about 20 billion euros of debt. Rising oil prices since the beginning of the year linked to the conflict have pushed energy costs up, a factor Patuano said is likely to feed through to inflation and increase pressure on the European Central Bank to act to rein in price rises. The article referenced a currency note of ($1 = 0.8641 euros).
Despite the tougher backdrop, Patuano said Cellnex has already completed required asset disposals and refinanced its near-term debt maturities, steps he said reinforce his confidence in the company strategy even amid weak market sentiment.
Cellnex’s market value has fallen roughly in half since its peak of about 40 billion euros in 2021, a decline Patuano attributed to investor concern over the group’s debt load and the potential for consolidation among its mobile operator clients. "It’s the entire sector that is at this moment suffering more than being a company specific element," he said.
As European defence budgets have risen, Patuano has urged governments to treat telecom networks as strategic defence assets. "Defence is not only rockets and missiles and bombs. Defence is also being able to stay connected if something wrong has happened," he said, noting that he raises the point in government meetings on a weekly basis.
He suggested one policy measure governments could consider is waiving fees tied to spectrum licence renewals, using the foregone revenue as an incentive for companies to channel investment into communications infrastructure instead of paying licence charges.
Context and implications
Patuano’s comments underline how geopolitical events and broader market conditions can directly affect capital-intensive infrastructure players in the telecom sector. Cellnex’s balance-sheet position, recent asset sales and refinancing moves will shape its ability to navigate a slower consolidation environment while maintaining operational plans.