The Spanish company, which already owns towers with Deutsch Telekom in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany, announced the withdrawal earlier today.
Cellnex already lays claim to around 53,000 tower sites across Europe and has hopes for 137,000 by 2030.
The company reportedly offered Deutsche Telekom a minor stake in its business as part of the offer which was backed by Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management.
After Cellnex’s exit was confirmed, shares in the company rose by around 5%.
A deal worth around US$18 billion is now widely expected to be agreed with the KKR-led consortium.
The offer is backed by US investment firms Stonepeak and Global Infrastructure Partners as is thought to be at an advanced stage as of last week.
The transaction, should it go through, would rank as the biggest deal in Germany this year and second in Europe behind Blackstone’s takeover of infrastructure firm Atlantia.
