Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Ltd (LSE:CORD) completing the acquisition of Emitel was a "key milestone" and results in a look-through profit of around £100mln from its two Central and Eastern European operations, said broker Liberum.
The broker issued a note from the investment trust after its interim results confirmed the acquisition, which also precipitated an increase in the dividend from 3p to 4p and allows CORD full access to its €200mln Eurobond facility, with €80mln of the total conditional on completing the deal.
Emitel's 2021 underlying earnings (EBITDA) represent circa 16% of the price paid by Cordiant, the analysts noted.
Futhermore, total unrealised value movements from the February 2021 IPO to September 2022 of £36mln represent circa 10% of total investments into the previous two investments, CRA and Hudson Exchange.
"Longer-term, taking a sum-of-the-parts view illustrates some of the embedded value within the portfolio. These are multi-dimensional companies with multiple businesses," said analyst Shonil Chande.
"Linear TV and radio are resilient in the Czech Republic and Poland, supporting the broadcast businesses and both companies own a significant number of mobile towers. Multi-sector national assets with multiple business lines are always likely to carry some discount to single-sector assets.
"However, given the disciplined buying multiples and the scale of CRA and Emitel, CORD could carve out some of these businesses in the future."
Within the existing businesses, the analyst sees the mobile tower business being a driver of growth, with both CRA and Emitel among the 100 largest independent mobile tower companies globally (according to data from DgtlInfra), with 5G driving increased demand from mobile network operators for tower leases and scope to increase the build-out of data centres.
Hudson Interxchange's positioning as an interconnect hub in Manhattan, and the scope that exists to take more floor space, also "looks promising".