After two years with losses of around 300 million euros, Cellnex Telecom has managed to reduce its red numbers in 2024 to 28 million euros, 90% less, now focused on organic growth and debt reduction after a streak of large acquisitions. With divestments in Austria and Ireland, the telecommunications company led by Marco Patuano thus approaches the break-even point, although it has not wanted to specify in which fiscal year this will occur. "We continue to work to improve the result and we will get there," says its CFO, Raimon Trias, who highlights that free cash flow has been positive again for the second consecutive year. "It has been a good year, very successful," defends Patuano.
The reduction in losses has been supported by an increase in revenues, which have grown almost 8% to 3,941 million euros, but also by an improvement in costs. Cellnex's main business arm is telecommunication towers, accounting for 80% of its turnover. With an almost 7% improvement in revenues, they grew both with 4,300 new sites and with new points of presence in existing towers. The company has a portfolio of more than 110,000 sites in a dozen European countries, with France, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Spain being the main markets. "Our focus is to strengthen ourselves in the countries where we are," states its CEO, ruling out entering new markets.
An improvement in turnover that did not manage to offset the losses, heavily influenced by the decrease in the value of the business in Austria, sold last summer for about 800 million euros, as well as amortizations and financial costs derived from the intense investment program carried out in the past, with which it executed more than 40 acquisitions. Since 2017, the tower company has not recorded profits. The multinational's debt stood at 17.1 billion last year, with 80% at a fixed rate. EBITDA grew in 2024, with an 8% increase to 3.25 billion euros. In the last three years, as Patuano points out, the ratio between debt and EBITDA has gone from almost 8 times to 6.4 times, which allows the company to have a "much safer and more adequate" capital structure.
In the midst of a business restructuring, a few weeks ago, Cellnex announced an employment regulation file (ERE) after two large third-party network maintenance contracts ended and were not renewed. It is estimated that it will affect 250 people from its Spanish subsidiaries Tradia and Retevisión, a figure that represents 9% of the workforce. For its CEO, it is part of the automation of processes: "Everyone sees the positive side but it also comes with workforce reduction."
In addition to focusing on organic growth and debt reduction, Cellnex focuses on shareholder remuneration, who have disbursed more than 15,000 million euros in different capital increases since its foundation in 2015. When the sale of the business in Ireland for 971 million euros is completed in the coming days, the company will carry out a share buyback worth 800 million euros to take advantage of the current share price level and reduce the share capital. In 2026, it plans to distribute 500 million euros in dividends, with an additional 300 million euros that may be dividends or share buybacks depending on market conditions. Previously, the telecommunications infrastructure operator distributed a much smaller figure, around 40 million euros in dividends.
Looking ahead to 2025, the tower company plans to invest more than 2,000 million euros, after the 4,400 million disbursed between 2023 and 2024, and will focus on growth opportunities in Norway and Sweden. "We are a capital-intensive sector," Trias emphasizes. Revenues are estimated to be between 3,950 and 4,050 million euros. All this, with the forecast that data consumption will skyrocket with the commercial application of artificial intelligence (AI). For the moment, the company does not plan to return its registered office to Barcelona, where it has its headquarters, in the Marina neighborhood, with a workforce of 260 employees.