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​
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Ownership
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Pallet positions
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Netherlands sites
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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
