(Bloomberg) — Spark New Zealand plans to separate its mobile-phone tower assets into a new subsidiary and explore the introduction of outside capital.
The Auckland-based telecommunications company will transfer about 1,250 mobile towers into a subsidiary called Spark TowerCo, it said when announcing first-half earnings Wednesday.
Separating these assets will improve utilization through increased tenancy, while delivering cost efficiencies as Spark expands coverage, it said.
Telecommunications companies around the world are separating so-called passive assets such as mobile-phone towers and looking for specialist investors.
In 2021, Australia’s Telstra Corp. raised $2.1 billion from the sale of a stake in its towers, and planned to return some of that to shareholders.
Spark said it will “commence a process” to explore the introduction of third-party capital in the next few months, however there is no certainty a transaction will proceed.
“Should we choose to introduce third-party capital we will retain a shareholding and remain a key anchor tenant, with appropriate agreements in place on arms-length terms for operations and services,” Chief Executive Jolie Hodson said.
“There will be no change for our customers, and we will continue to invest in modernizing our mobile network and improving coverage.”
Spark said operating earnings rose 7.6% in the six months ended Dec.
31 to NZ$538 million ($363 million), and the company forecast it will achieve full-year operating earnings in the top half of a range of NZ$1.13 billion to NZ$1.16 billion.
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