management company Cellnex, telecommunication towers and one of the largest in IbexHe lives in troubled times. After announcing its CEO last January, Tobias MartinezOn June 3, two days after the anniversary celebrations shareholders meetingThere have been various events that bring the company to the forefront today, not for asset purchase as in recent years.
In this context, the parliament dismissed the current president on March 27, bernard khan and chose your name Anne Bouverot. It has shifted from a profile more connected to investment banking to a more industrial profile to face a new phase of investment. business consolidation and organic growth, after several years of acquisitions and digesting the integration of assets. The company invested 35,000 million acquisitions It split from Abertis in 2015 and went public. Half of all this labor is debt of 16,900 million as of December 31, and you have to make the other half profitable with four capital increases between 2019-2021. at the new stage.
The presidency change and the pressure to accelerate the CEO election came at the request of the new main shareholder, the British investor. Chris Hohn via TCI activist fund increased its stake from 7.08% to 9.03%, with 8.2% above the Benetton family, Singapore sovereign fund (7.03%) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (5.19) . %), Blackrock (5.071%), CK Hutchison (4,828%), Criteria Caixa (4,774%) or Norges Bank (3.003), among others.
Choosing to continue as a consultant in the same week, Kan and Peter Beach submitted their resignation with immediate effect due to “irreconcilable differences” with the company’s board of directors “regarding the management, direction and succession process” within the company. And in the middle of this storm, JP Morgan announced that it owns 5.5% of its capital. With Hohn, the shareholder structure changed radically, and the board was forced to choose a CEO as soon as possible.
While Hohn holds political rights for about 3% of the capital, the rest is derivatives, “I’m sure he’ll claim the 9% he owns at the shareholders meeting,” stressed market sources. In any case, choosing a CEO will not be entirely easy. If he is someone from outside the board, as everything shows, he will first have to become a board member with the approval of 8 out of 11 directors of the company’s governing body.
One of the names considered to be in the CEO position is marco patuanoWith the sale of 29.9% of the capital by Abertis to the Benetton family, until 2019, currently serving as the chairman of Cellnex for about a year. The principal director of Telecom Italia was a registered director representing Connect, the main shareholder of Cellnex, owned by the Edizione Group (the Benetton family’s industrial holding company).
Cellnex, which has a stock market value of approximately 27,000 million and has been on the rise in recent days since the Hohn attack, will reach a portfolio of approximately 135,000 locations in Spain, Italy, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, United Kingdom by 2030. , Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Poland. Last November, during the presentation of results for the third quarter of 2022, the company announced that its two new goals are to stop growth through acquisitions, as there are few interesting opportunities left in the European market; and started a new cycle of rising interest rates; and get investment grade from Standard & Poor’s. This entails reducing debt and may require selling assets. According to some sources, the answer may not be on the ground yet for the June 1 shareholder meeting when the new boss is involved.