LONDON (Reuters) – Vantage Towers, the mobile infrastructure company spun out of Vodafone Group, on Wednesday announced its intention to float on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange by the end of March.
Vantage operates about 82,000 towers across 10 countries, where it is usually the leading or second largest supplier.
Vodafone said it would sell a “meaningful minority” to create a liquid market in Vantage Towers’ shares. No newly created shares will be on offer, meaning Vantage will not reap proceeds from the deal.
The company did not disclose how many shares will be offered, but people familiar with the matter said earlier this month, that stock worth about 3 billion euros ($3.65 billion) would be sold.
Vantage said late last year that it expects to report pro forma adjusted core earnings of up to 540 million euros in the financial year to the end of March 2021.
Rival telecom mast companies such as Cellnex, American Tower, Crown Castle and SBA Communications trade at 25 to 30 times their core earnings, which would imply a valuation of 13.5 billion to 16 billion euros for Vantage.
($1 = 0.8226 euros)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Arno Schuetze; editing by Sarah Young and Louise Heavens)
