CMS advises Sunrise on the sale of Swiss Towers AG

8 June 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.

In the run-up to this transaction, 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
Lead Partner: Dr Clemens von Zedtwitz (Technology, Media & Communications/Commercial), Marc Mischler, Matthias Kuert (Commercial); Dr Sibylle Schnyder, Seraina Kihm, Thomas Zweifel (Real Estate & Construction); Alain Raemy, Dr Daniel Jenny, Andrea Ferchl (Corporate/M&A); Dr Kaspar Landolt (Banking & Finance); Marquard Christen (Competition & EU); Dr Simone Brauchbar Birkhaeuser (Intellectual Property)

CMS Germany
Lead Partner: Dr Oliver Thurn (Corporate/M&A); Dr Simon Sabel, Karen Eldred (Corporate/M&A); Dr Jens Neitzel, Dr Daniel Hofmann (Technology, Media & Communications)