SHERE GROUP

10 x growth in revenue

and cash flow over ownership

One of the largest independent owners of communication towers & sites in the Netherlands and the UK

Digital

AEIF1

Vehicle

2016

Investment year

Realised

Status

Netherlands & UK

Country

More about Shere Group

Key sites

In the UK, Shere group provided key sites to all the UK mobile operators and other parties such as Airwave, which runs the national emergency services radio system used by the police, fire brigades and ambulance services

Shere’s towers

In the Netherlands, Shere’s towers are distributed across the country and are managed by a team of professionals from Shere’s office in Reeuwijk, close to Rotterdam

0 %

Ownership

Pallet positions

Netherlands sites

Employees

Market

Stable inflation linked cash flows with high forward visibility

The market had an unregulated pricing regime with limited competition due to high barriers to entry

Towers are high margin assets (>80% EBITDA margin), producing attractive cash yield

Essential element of MNOs’ networks with a high degree of technical ‘lock-in’ which make switching towers very difficult for the MNO

Increasing value of existing towers, especially strategically located ones, as planning restrictions drive scarcity value

Asset

In October 2016, the fund completed the sale of its entire stake in Shere Group to a listed European towerco Cellnex, at a return well above the entry investment case

Shere grew well throughout, particularly in the period from 2012 – 2016, primarily as a result of a new entrant in the Dutch market and general 4G roll-out in both countries

In the Netherlands, the four Dutch mobile network operators (KPN, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Tele2) were Shere’s key customers. Shere was the second largest owner of independent tower sites in the Netherlands

In the UK, Shere provided sites to the four UK mobile phone operators (Vodafone, Telefonica O2, Everything Everywhere and Hutchison 3G) and to other wireless operators such as Airwave, which runs the national police radio system

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