Britain’s Virgin Media O2 said it had sold a 16.67% stake in its mobile towers joint venture Cornerstone to GLIL Infrastructure, a partnership of UK pension funds, for about 360 million pounds ($437 million) in cash.
VM O2, jointly owned by Telefonica and Liberty Global, said the value represented a multiple of 18.7x of Cornerstone’s adjusted core earnings for the year ended in March 2023.
The mobile and broadband company will retain a 33.33% stake in Cornerstone, Britain’s largest tower sharing company, which is half owned by Vodafone (VOD.L) via its Vantage Towers (VTWRn.H) subsidiary.
The sale confirmed a Reuters report on Saturday.
VM O2’s Chief Executive Lutz Schüler said selling a minority stake in Cornerstone was a logical move that partly monetised its towers infrastructure, while retaining operational and strategic co-control.
GLIL investment director Simon Davy said stake fitted well into its existing portfolio of high quality, core infrastructure assets.
VM O2 will publish third-quarter results on Wednesday.
