Vodafone Group’s Vantage Towers reportedly drew interest from infrastructure funds, although the UK-headquartered group was said to continue to favour a merger with another operator tower company such as Deutsche Telekom’s towers unit or Orange’s Totem.

Reuters reported investment companies including Brookfield and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) submitted unsolicited proposals in recent weeks which value Vantage Towers at a premium to its current valuation of €15 billion.

Vodafone has apparently been studying the proposals, which Reuters stated are for a majority stake in Vantage Towers.

The operator is also under pressure from activist fund Cevian Capital to simplify its portfolio, enhance its strategy in key markets and improve returns.

Bloomberg reported in January Deutsche Telekom had held talks with Vodafone and Orange regarding potential tower tie-ups.

The German incumbent reportedly started the sales process for its mobile towers business as part of broader efforts to maximise the value of its infrastructure assets.

Vodafone listed Vantage Towers in Frankfurt in 2021, but still owns 81 per cent of the business.

Information from the tower company show it operating 82,000 sites including macro sites, distributed antenna systems and small cells.

Anne Morris is a freelance journalist and contributes news and analysis to Mobile World Live.

Deutsche Telekom inks deal to sell tower unit stake

Vodafone open RAN guru hopeful for sector specialists

Vodafone claims UK first with self-powering mast

Mobile Mix: 5G comes to life

Mobile Mix: Cisco chats cloud and cars

Partner Feature: Qualcomm 5G Summit highlights

© 2022 GSM Association. The GSMA, Mobile World Live, MWC Barcelona, MWC Los Angeles & MWC Shanghai terms and logos are trademarks of the GSM Association

Do you want to hear about the latest developments in mobile technology?

Sign up to our free daily news bulletin