“We are focussed on Europe and building a passive telecom infrastructure platform, because we do not own the active equipment used in the infrastructures”, explained Tobías Martínez, Cellnex Telecom CEO at the recent ESADE Matins sponsored by Bluecap. ESADE Matins are business analysis meetings organised by ESADE Alumni and held at ESADE, where foremost companies explain their view of the industry and company they manage.

The guest CEO explained that the region in the world chosen for developing their corporate strategy was Spain because of its legal stability, “because we invest with a 20 or 30 year horizon and we need a stable framework”, and also its political and economic stability. “We have rejected certain opportunities in high-growth areas outside Europe because it wasn’t our region. Our priority today is to grow in countries where we are already established in order to consolidate our market share”.

Tobías Martínez, Cellnex Telecom CEO, talked about the company’s development and growth, particularly after being listed on the stock exchange in 2015. Previously the company had a single product in virtually just one country (Spain) and in merely four years it diversified into different areas related to telecom infrastructures. It now operates in six countries (Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and UK) and has invested a total of €4,000m in growth since 2015. The company has recently announced a new growth campaign aimed at strengthening its presence in the French, Italian and Swiss markets and has earmarked another €4,000m of investment.

“In 2027, our main European market will be France,” explained Tobías Martínez in the interview conducted by Maite Barrera, president of ESADE Alumni during the ESADE Matins talk.  “We are currently in Switzerland too where there are only three operators, two of which are customers of ours and it’s a good country to be in. Besides this, one third of our business today is in Italy”. As for Holland, the Cellnex Telecom CEO said it was “a great country where we would like to increase our presence and grow bigger because we are underrepresented there.” About the UK, where the company has less presence, he said, “we want to make an impact there, it’s the second largest economy in Europe and requires big investment and an opportunity”.

5G infrastructure

When asked about 5G, Tobías Martínez explained, “We are currently rolling out 5G to our customers particularly in France and we have conducted real-life trials about implementing a 5G infrastructure, bearing in mind that we already have 3G and 4G”. “We want to develop our value chain in 5G, and this calls for heavy investment. 5G will change the type of service. It really will mark the start of the digital transformation of the world”.

The Cellnex CEO pointed out that they are a partner for customers with 20 to 30 year contracts. “We don’t manage infrastructures, we manage telecom customers by managing infrastructures.”