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The deal will see around 60% of KPN’s tower and rooftop assets passed over to the new joint venture with ABP
This week, incumbent Dutch telecoms operator KPN has announced the creation of a new joint venture with Dutch pension fund ABP to manage tower infrastructure across the country.
The deal will see KPN contribute around 60% of its existing tower and rooftop base station portfolio to the joint venture, with a further 800 sites being added from ABP’s tower subsidiary Open Tower Company (OTC).
The deal will also see KPN take over Novec, a passive infrastructure operator owned by energy grid operator TenneT, which also has a minority stake in OTC. Novec
Once combined, the new TowerCo will manage and operate around 3,800 mobile towers ad rooftop sites.
In total, KPN will pay €120 million to Novec and OTC shareholders to balance the scales in the deal. KPN will hold a 51% stake in the business, with the remaining 49% owed by ABP.
This is the second joint venture between KPN and ABP, the first being a €1 billion open access wholesale fibre network operator Glaspoort created back in 2021.
KPN says the deal to monetise its passive infrastructure assets is crucial to its ongoing strategic focus on flexibility, growth, and technological development.
“We have built up a very good position with our mobile network in recent years. We want to maintain and further expand this in the future, also in view of the ever-growing data traffic,” said KPN chief exec Joost Farwerck in a translated statement. “With this collaboration we gain more control and flexibility at a large number of locations of our mobile infrastructure and at the same time we realise a more sustainable cost model.”
As part of the deal, KPN has agreed to a 20-year master services agreement with the new TowerCo, as well as a 10-year build-to-suit programme that will see the TowerCo build additional towers as necessary.
The deal is subject to all typical regulatory approvals.
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