Zegona Threatens to Split From Tower Partner in Spain Over Rates
- Zegona’s Vodafone Spain wants to cut €50 million, say sources
- Breaking a tower deal would be highly unusual for an operator
Telecommunications operators typically have decades-long relationships with tower companies and moving the network would be operationally challenging and potentially incur millions of euros in penalties.
Photographer: Angel Garcia/BloombergZegona Communications Plc is threatening to break a long-term contract with Vantage Towers AG if it doesn’t get cheaper rates for use of the Germany-based tower company’s network in Spain, people familiar with the matter said.
The London-based private equity firm Zegona has spent months in tense negotiations over how much Vodafone Spain, which it bought last year, is paying to use Vantage’s network infrastructure, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss private matters. Zegona is weighing shifting the telecom operator over to one or more tower providers if Vantage doesn’t reduce its annual fees by about €50 million ($54.5 million), two of the people said.