CMS advises Sunrise on the sale of Swiss Towers AG

CMS advises Sunrise on the sale of Swiss Towers AG

3 August 2017 - Sunrise Communications Group AG (Sunrise) sold Swiss Towers AG for 500 million Swiss francs. The company owns 2,239 telecom towers in Switzerland. The buyer is a consortium consisting of the main Spanish independent operator of wireless communications infrastructure Cellnex Telecom S.A., Swiss Life Asset Management AG and Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners. The transaction was signed on 24 May 2017 and closed on 3 August 2017.

In the run-up, 2,239 telecom towers and their related contracts were spun-off into Swiss Towers AG in March 2017. The transaction relates to the passive network infrastructure, i.e. mainly steel and concrete constructions (telecom towers), while the active network infrastructure (antennas) remain with Sunrise. Sunrise has entered into a long-term service agreement with the consortium for the pro-vision of tower infrastructure services and is thus the first telecommunications provider in Switzerland to enter into such a partnership.

Sunrise, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, has more than 1700 employees and is the largest private telecommunications provider in Switzerland, covering all areas of telecommunications and is listed since February 2015. Its main shareholder is the German Freenet AG. Sunrise has more than 3.3 million customers (as of December 31, 2016).

A Swiss-German CMS team headed by Dr Clemens von Zedtwitz (CMS Switzerland) provided Sunrise with comprehensive legal advice during this transaction.

CMS Switzerland

Overall Lead Partner: Dr Clemens von Zedtwitz (Technology, Media & Communications/Commercial)

Corporate/M&A: Alain Raemy (Lead Partner), Dr Daniel Jenny, Andrea Ferchl, Anna Tomascheck, Alexandra Stocker

Real Estate & Construction: Dr Sibylle Schnyder (Lead Partner), Seraina Kihm, Thomas Zweifel

Banking & Finance: Dr Kaspar Landolt

Competition & EU: Marquard Christen

Intellectual Property: Dr Simone Brauchbar Birkhaeuser

Commercial: Matthias Kuert, Marc Mischler

CMS Germany

Corporate/M&A: Dr Oliver Thurn (Lead Partner), Dr Simon Sabel, Karen Eldred

Technology, Media & Communications: Dr Jens Neitzel, Dr Daniel Hofmann