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Introduction & Market Context
Cellnex Telecom (BME:CLNX) SA (BME:CLNX) presented its Q1 2025 results on May 9, showing resilient performance amid ongoing strategic initiatives. The European tower infrastructure company reported solid organic growth despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, with shares trading at €33.80, down 1.97% on the day of the presentation.
The company’s Q1 results come after a mixed Q4 2024, when Cellnex missed revenue forecasts but saw positive stock movement due to operational improvements and strategic initiatives. The latest presentation emphasizes the company’s continued focus on operational efficiency, debt management, and accelerated shareholder returns.
Quarterly Performance Highlights
Cellnex reported solid financial performance in Q1 2025, with revenues excluding pass-throughs reaching €964 million, representing 6.3% organic pro-forma growth or 1.9% reported growth year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA grew 7.7% organically (2.6% reported), while EBITDAAL showed even stronger growth at 8.7% organically (5.8% reported).
As shown in the following key highlights slide, the company also completed several strategic initiatives including the sale of its Ireland operations and implementation of a voluntary redundancy plan in Spain affecting approximately 200 employees over 2025-2027:
Operational metrics remained strong, with 1,216 new build-to-suit (BTS) sites and 1,109 new co-locations in the quarter. The customer ratio improved to 1.59x from 1.57x at the end of Q1 2024, demonstrating enhanced asset utilization. The company also completed 887 land site actions, further optimizing its infrastructure portfolio.
The following slide illustrates the solid performance across both financial and operational metrics:
Detailed Financial Analysis
Cellnex’s organic revenue growth of 6.3% was driven by multiple factors, including inflation-linked escalators, new co-locations, and BTS sites. The waterfall chart below breaks down the components of this growth:
By business segment, Towers revenue grew organically by 0.3% to €778 million in Q1 2025, while Fiber, Connectivity & Housing Services showed impressive growth of approximately 24% to €58 million. The Broadcast segment also performed well, growing around 5% to €62 million.
The company demonstrated strong operating leverage, with EBITDA and EBITDAAL growth outpacing revenue growth. This efficiency is highlighted in the following slide:
Cost optimization initiatives continue to bear fruit, with headcount reduced by 4.5% year-over-year while maintaining operational excellence. Repair and maintenance costs remained flat per tower, while SG&A and lease expenses decreased by 2.3% per tower, reflecting the company’s focus on operational efficiency.
Strategic Initiatives
Cellnex continues to execute on its strategic transformation, balancing growth investments with debt management and shareholder returns. The company completed the sale of its Ireland operations and secured a new syndicated loan of €625 million at favorable terms (Euribor + 0.95%) for refinancing purposes.
The share buyback program is progressing as planned, with €746 million (93% of the total) already deployed as of May 2, 2025. The company has acquired approximately 22.5 million shares at an average price of €33.15, representing 3.2% of share capital.
As shown in the following slide, the buyback implementation is well on track:
Cellnex maintains a solid balance sheet with liquidity of approximately €4.7 billion, including €1.5 billion in cash and €3.2 billion in undrawn credit lines. The company’s debt profile remains manageable with approximately 80% at fixed rates, helping to mitigate interest rate risks.
The debt maturity schedule shows a well-distributed profile with no immediate refinancing pressures:
Forward-Looking Statements
Cellnex has reiterated its financial guidance for both 2025 and 2027, demonstrating confidence in its business model and strategic direction. The company expects revenues (excluding pass-through) of €3,950-4,050 million in 2025 and €4,320-4,520 million in 2027.
The following slide details the company’s financial outlook:
The company is accelerating shareholder remuneration with an €800 million share buyback program in 2025, alongside a commitment to a minimum dividend of €500 million from 2026. This represents a significant increase from previous years and demonstrates management’s confidence in Cellnex’s cash generation capabilities.
As illustrated in the shareholder remuneration commitments slide, these initiatives are expected to drive RLFCF per share accretion from 2.4 to 2.8:
Management emphasized the resilience of the tower business model and expects limited impact from potential market consolidation among mobile network operators. The company views satellite technology as complementary rather than competitive to its terrestrial infrastructure, positioning Cellnex well for continued growth in the evolving telecommunications landscape.
Cellnex’s focus on operational efficiency, strategic asset management, and balanced capital allocation appears to be creating a solid foundation for sustainable growth and enhanced shareholder returns, though the market reaction suggests investors may still be evaluating the company’s transformation progress.
Full presentation:
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