Virgin Media O2 will sell a 16.67% minority stake in its mobile tower joint venture, Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure, to GLIL Infrastructure.
It will receive £360m and will retain a 33.33% stake in Cornerstone upon completion.
The sale has been structured through a VMO2 holding company (HoldCo), which owns 50% of the Cornerstone shares. After the transaction, GLIL will own 33.3% of HoldCo and VMO2 the remaining 66.7%. VMO2 will continue co-controlling Cornerstone, together with Vantage Towers.
This transaction will not impact the existing commercial network sharing agreement between Vodafone UK and Virgin Media O2.
Cornerstone owns and manages an estate of around 20,000 sites spread across both urban and rural locations.
Lutz Schüler, CEO of Virgin Media O2, said: “We are partially monetising our tower infrastructure, while retaining operational and strategic co-control in a key asset as we roll out 5G to more of the country and boost 4G connectivity.”