Three’s parent company, CK Hutchison announced formation of a new wholly-owned telecommunication holding company, CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings (CKHT).
The new group will consolidate the Group’s European operations which consist of telecoms networks in Britain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Ireland and its Hong Kong and Macau operations under one holding entity, providing a diversified telecommunication asset platform across eight geographical locations.
CKHT will refinance all the existing external debt of Wind Tre of approximately €10 billion and be separately rated with an expected investment grade rating from all three credit rating agencies. Correspondingly, CKHT will also set up a new telecommunication infrastructure company, CK Hutchison Networks which will group the 28,500 tower asset interests into a separately managed wholly-owned subsidiary.
The new organisation structure and the refinancing transaction will allow the Group to generate significant financing cost savings from 2020 onwards, as well as rationalise its investments in light of the expected need for harmonisation of network, IT platform, and infrastructure configurations to meet new transnational business opportunities going forward, said the Operator in a statement.
