Vodafone Group’s Vantage Towers reportedly drew interest from infrastructure funds, although the UK-headquartered group was said to continue to favour a merger with another operator tower company such as Deutsche Telekom’s towers unit or Orange’s Totem.

Reuters reported investment companies including Brookfield and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) submitted unsolicited proposals in recent weeks which value Vantage Towers at a premium to its current valuation of €15 billion.

Vodafone has apparently been studying the proposals, which Reuters stated are for a majority stake in Vantage Towers.

The operator is also under pressure from activist fund Cevian Capital to simplify its portfolio, enhance its strategy in key markets and improve returns.

Bloomberg reported in January Deutsche Telekom had held talks with Vodafone and Orange regarding potential tower tie-ups.

The German incumbent reportedly started the sales process for its mobile towers business as part of broader efforts to maximise the value of its infrastructure assets.

Vodafone listed Vantage Towers in Frankfurt in 2021, but still owns 81 per cent of the business.

Information from the tower company show it operating 82,000 sites including macro sites, distributed antenna systems and small cells.