Lhe war of the masts is declared. Not only those of the wind turbines, but also those of the antennas which allow us to telephone, and now abound on all the roofs of the big cities and in the countryside. Their possession now amounts to billions of euros. Telephone operators are all trying to value this juicy asset. The British Vodafone, which had already introduced its pylons on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, united in the company Vantage, decided to go further by selling a share, for the moment minority, of the company to investment funds .
The winners of this giant auction are the American funds KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). The operation values the subsidiary nearly 15 billion euros, which would bring more than 3 billion to Vodafone. KKR, GIP, Blackstone, the American kings of private equity, are currently raiding infrastructure companies in Europe.
Blackstone, the largest, which manages nearly 1,000 billion dollars (as many euros) in assets, is behind Phoenix Power, the company which recently bought a good part of the antennas on the roofs of Paris. For its part, KKR, which controls nearly 500 billion in assets, had tried to buy the telecom towers of the German Deutsche Telekom, the European number one in the field. As for GIP, which is more specialized, it made itself known in France by its entry, in 2021, into the capital of Suez.
Long-term assets
Convinced that the international economic situation will deteriorate and that interest rates will rise sharply, these specialists in buying back debt are sheltering themselves by betting on solid, long-term assets. Especially since the energy transition is in dire need of their capital to unfold.
And as usual, to finance this craving for acquisitions, they turn to their friends in the Gulf. That’s good, the sovereign wealth funds of Abu Dhabi, Qatar or Saudi Arabia have never been so rich with soaring gas and oil prices. Thus, behind the acquisition of Vodafone antennas, hides, according to the economic daily FinancialTimesthe Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saud.
The latter puts a foot in the sensitive business of telecommunications in Europe. In the United States, he is already a shareholder of Boeing, Facebook, Citigroup, Uber and many others. But this fund, closely piloted by Prince Mohammed Ben Salman, smells of sulfur since his country fell out with the United States by allying with Russia on oil prices and courting China. Geopolitics could therefore one day catch up with the good deals of the big American beasts.