Three lenders are providing debt to support the recent acquisition of Cellnex’s Austrian tower business by a consortium comprising Vauban Infrastructure Partners, EDF Invest and MEAG, according to two sources.

Natixis, UniCredit and DNB have underwritten a large debt package and are planning to launch a syndication process shortly, the sources said.

The size of the debt package remains unclear, while one of the sources noted that it includes acquisition finance and capex.

Barclays is said by sources to be running this process, which follows an EUR 803m agreement in August to acquire Cellnex’s tower portfolio in Austria.

The price represented a multiple of just over 20x its 2023 EBITDA of EUR 39m, and also includes an “unconditional deferred payment of EUR 272m in December 2028”.

The deal is the first investment in telecoms towers to date for all three partners in the winning consortium.

Vauban, EDF Invest and MEAG saw off competition from tower operator Tawal, which is controlled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) and was the other finalist in the bidding process.

The Austrian portfolio includes circa 4,600 tower sites and generated EUR 83m of revenues last year.

Cellnex exited its Austria tower business three years after it bought CK Hutchison’s sites in the country as part of its wider acquisition of tower assets in six European countries.

The sale was in line with Cellnex’s strategy to offload tower assets across Europe, after selling a minority stake in its Nordics business to Stonepeak, and offloading 100% of its Irish operations to Blackstone-backed Phoenix Tower International.

DNB and MEAG declined to comment. Barclays, Natixis, UniCredit, EDF Invest and Vauban did not respond to requests for comment.