Two Cellnex board members quit amid pressure to change leadership

MADRID (Reuters) – Europe‘s largest mobile phone tower operator Cellnex said on Tuesday two of its board members have resigned following pressure on the company’s management from activist fund TCI.

Former board chairman Bertrand Boudewijn Kan, and Leonard Peter Shore, both independent directors, quit, citing “irreconcilable differences with the board”, with immediate effect, the Spanish company said on Tuesday.

The removal of both Kan and Shore had been requested on March, 23, by Christopher Hohn who runs activist fund TCI and argued the search for a new Cellnex CEO under way since late 2022 had “been mishandled by the board and resulted in insufficient progress”.

Cellnex announced last week Kan was stepping down as non-executive chairman but remaining a board member. He was substituted by board member Anne Bouverot as non-executive chair.

TCI has become Cellnexs largest shareholder with a 9% stake, including 5.9% in derivatives, surpassing Italian group Edizione.

In his letter, Hohn requested that TCIs representative Jonathan Amouyal to be included in the board.

In its Tuesday statement, Cellnex did not say who would replace the outgoing board members.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Joan Faus, Editing by Louise Heavens)