Private equity company DigitalBridge secured deals to acquire tower assets from Icelandic operators Syn and Nova, in a move to create an independent company in the country called IslandsTurnar.

In a statement, DigitalBridge asserted IslandsTurnar would be Iceland’s first independent tower company of scale and would focus on delivering nationwide coverage to support operators’ 5G deployment plans.

Financial terms for both acquisitions were undisclosed.

Syn, which owns Vodafone Iceland, and Nova will serve as long-term dual anchor tenants on all of IslandsTurnar’s towers.

The move into Iceland complements DigitalBridge’s expanding presence in the Nordics’ telecoms market, after it acquired Finland-based tower operator Digita in 2018.

Marc Ganzi, president and CEO of DigitalBridge, stated the creation of IslandsTurnar represented a unique opportunity to boost 5G in Iceland, a “stable, attractive and digitally advanced telecoms market”.

GSMA Intelligence estimated Nova had 156,000 mobile connections at end-Q3 and Syn 126,000. Market leader Siminn had 175,000.