The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today raised “competition concerns” over the planned £8.6bn (€10 billion) sale of CK Hutchison Holdings (Three UK) interests in European tower assets (including the UK, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Sweden) and businesses to Spanish company Cellnex.
The deal, which was announced last November 2020 (here) and came shortly after the firm also gobbled up Arqiva’s UK masts and rooftop sites for £2bn, would see Cellnex acquire some c.24,600 sites (masts and rooftop sites) from CKH. On top of that, they’ve agreed to sign a number of long-term service contracts with CKH’s mobile operators – running for an initial period of 15 years. On the flip side, CKH would get more money for 5G.
Ironically, one of the biggest opponents to the previous Arqiva deal was Three UK, which initially warned that it could make the tower company too dominant (here), not least because they would gain “control of over 80% of independent mobile sites in the UK” and there would thus no longer be much competition when negotiating future access to such sites (i.e. higher prices). But in that case, the CMA found no cause for alarm.
However, the deal between Cellnex and CKH is more of a problem in the UK, since it risks making the former too dominant. “Cellnex is already, by some distance, the largest independent supplier of mobile towers in the UK … The CMA is concerned that its purchase of the large number of assets owned by Three would further strengthen its position in this market,” said the competition watchdog.
In its initial analysis, the CMA found evidence to suggest that CKH, when considering how to monetise its passive infrastructure assets, could have sold these to an alternative buyer rather than existing market leader Cellnex. This would have increased the competition that Cellnex faces at present.
“Given the loss of this alternative competition, and the limited competition that Cellnex currently faces from smaller independent tower providers and mobile network operators, the CMA is concerned that this deal could result in higher prices or lower quality services for network operators, with a knock-on adverse impact for users of mobile networks across the UK,” added the watchdog.
Mike Walker, Chief Economic Adviser at the CMA, said:
“It’s important that services provided to mobile networks remain competitive so that the millions of businesses and consumers across the UK that use mobile phones can enjoy lower prices.
Cellnex is already the largest independent supplier of mobile towers in the UK. We’re concerned that this deal could help to lock in this position and prevent the emergence of new direct competition.”
Surprisingly, the CMA has now given CKH just 5 working days to offer “legally-binding proposals” to address the concerns, which seems to be a fairly short period of time and perhaps suggests that the CMA is already confident of the outcome. After that, the watchdog would then have a further 5 working days to consider whether to accept any offer or refer the case to a Phase 2 investigation.
We should point out that finding the potential for “competition concerns” on such a big deal is not unusual, and progressing to a Phase 2 investigation is fairly par for the course with such things. Nevertheless, the call for “legally-binding proposals” suggests that Cellnex might have something to worry about through the next phase.
Greased palm to anyone who waves this through 🙂
Probably, just like all the other sales the government has let through.
Oh I can see those concerns disappearing as quickly as they appeared.