A1 Telekom Austria Group has decided to spin off its radio masts into a separate company while maintaining the ownership structure.
According to the group, the transaction will involve around 12,900 cell towers in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Northern Macedonia. It adds that in the course of the spin-off, the shareholders of Telekom Austria AG are to receive shares in the new tower company in proportion to their existing shareholdings, which is to be listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange in the same way as Telekom Austria.
Commenting on the spin off, Thomas Arnoldner, CEO of A1 Group, said: “We welcome this decision to spin off the passive infrastructure into a separate company. It offers strategically important perspectives and a long-term stable ownership structure. It will make our network rollout faster and more efficient, which will benefit our customers and the business location”.
Alejandro Plater, COO of A1 Group, added: “With this important step for the future, we are creating more transparency and generating better use of existing assets. At many large national and international telecommunications providers in Europe and also in Austria, this is already lived practice or has been started. We are now also following this example”.
The shareholders of A1 Telekom Austria, América Móvil and ÖBAG, agreed to support the spin-off of the transmission towers earlier this month.