TOTEM POLES. Orange’s arrival at Europe’s telecoms tower party may be lucrative as well as fashionably late. The 26 billion euro French telecommunications giant said on Thursday that it was parking its 25,500 masts for mobile transmitters in France and Spain in a separate company, to be called Totem. In crude terms, it looks like a tasty morsel for larger players like Cellnex Telecom or soon-to-be-listed Vodafone spinoff Vantage, which have around 200,000 sites between them. With so many suitors, Orange Chief Executive Stéphane Richard should find plenty of support for Totem’s valuation. On the current trajectory, it should generate 310 million euros of EBITDA this year, after lease payments. On the 22 times multiple that Cellnex paid this month for 10,500 towers in France, it would be worth nearly 7 billion euros. U.S. goliath American Tower paid as much as 26 times in a Spanish deal last month. Richard’s tardiness may yet pay off. (By Ed Cropley)