A1 Telekom Austria Group’s board agreed to a plan to spin off its passive telecoms infrastructure into a separate company.
In a statement, A1 Telekom stated it will maintain ownership of the separate company which has yet to be established. Around 12,9000 towers across its central and eastern European footprint are being transferred over to the new holding company.
The cell towers are located in: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Northern Macedonia.
In the process of the separation, A1 Telekom Austria shareholders will receive shares in the new company in proportion to their existing shares.
A1 Telekom Austria is the European unit of Latin American operator group America Movil, of which shareholders agreed to the spin-off, as Austrian sovereign wealth fund ÖBAG. A1 Telekom Austria has around 27 million customers and also operates in Belarus.
A1 Group CEO Thomas Arnoldner (pictured, fourth): "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."
A1 Group COO Alejandro Plater (pictured, first) 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."
