KBRA Assigns and Affirms Ratings for DFMG Holding GmbH

DUBLIN, October 15, 2026--KBRA Europe (KBRA) assigns its BBB+ ratings to DFMG Holding GmbH's EUR 1,000 million senior secured notes. KBRA also affirms the issuer rating of BBB and senior secured ratings of BBB+ for DFMG Holding GmbH. The Outlook is Stable.

GD Towers Holding GmbH (GDT) is a leading European tower company (towerco) that, through its wholly owned subsidiary DFMG Holding GmbH, owns and operates approximately 44,600 mobile sites in Germany and Austria. Its primary business activities include the acquisition, leasing, construction, maintenance, and management of passive network infrastructure for mobile communications.

Key Credit Considerations

(+) Strategically Important Infrastructure

Towers are essential for day-to-day communication and for MNOs' business activities. They represent a small fraction of MNO operating expenses but are business critical to their ongoing operations. MNO demand for access to tower infrastructure is driven by increasing capacity, quality, and coverage requirements as data flows continue to increase. Demand is also driven by 5G rollouts and carrier aggregation. MNOs are competing aggressively on data offerings, which underpins demand for supporting infrastructure. Capacity constraints mean MNOs need additional points of presence to densify networks, which in turn underpins strong demand for towerco assets.

(+) Stable, High-Quality Revenues

In 2025, approximately 73% of recurring revenues were largely availability-based, index-linked, and derived from the anchor tenants TDG and TMA under medium- to long-term (eight-year renewal) MLAs. These revenues are further complemented by framework agreements with other investment-grade MNOs such as Vodafone and Telefonica. This allows the business to maintain revenue growth and stable and/or improving adjusted EBITDA.

(+) Dominant Position in Core Markets of Germany and Austria

GDT has an oligopolistic market position as one of three or four providers of wireless telco infrastructure in its key markets of Germany and Austria, reinforcing the critical nature of the service for the implementation of the national digital strategy of both countries.

(+) Demonstrated Resilience in EBITDA Margins Through Economic Peaks and Troughs

GDT has maintained margins of approximately 55%-65% over the last number of years (including the start of the Russia-Ukraine war) demonstrating the defensive nature of the business and its ability to pass through costs. This is notwithstanding some one-off costs linked to the carve-out of the new business in 2023, which caused some margin volatility (still within the 55%-65% range) in that year.