In a brief statement to investors, Magyar Telekom said that it is evaluating the potential opportunities and risks in separating its portfolio of around 3,700 towers into a separate entity.
According to the statement the entity would be a „fully owned subsidiary”, and did not mention the possibility of monetising its wireless assets as several other Europea and domestic telecoms operators have.
With this, Magyar Telekom could be the third Deutsche Telekom-controlled business in Europe to evaluate a potential separation of its tower assets. A few weeks ago, Hrvatski Telekom (HT), DT’s subsidiary in Croatia, announced its own examination of tower spin-out possibilities. Greece’s OTE Group, a sister business within DT’s Europe segment, has also said it is exploring a spin-off of wireless infra activities. Both HT and OTE Group are focusing exclusively on spinning out passive infrastructure (towers, power supply, etc). Deutsche Telekom itself sold a 51%-stake in Austrian-German business GD Towers to investment firms Brookfield Asset Management and DigitalBridge in early 2023.
Magyar Telekom’s domestic competitors have already done what the company now evaluates. Telenor Hungary (now Yettel Hungary), separated its wireless infrastructure in 2020, forming CETIN Hungary. The entity, which now operates around 3,800 towers, is partially owned by infrastructure investors CETIN Group and PPF Group. Vodafone Hungary (then part of the international Vodafone group) carved out its wireless infrastructure in November 2020. It now belongs to the cross-European infra player Vantage Towers that operates approximately 2,100 towers in Hungary.
