American Tower Corp said it would buy privately held MIP Tower Holdings, the parent of telecom tower operator Global Tower Partners, in a $4.8 billion deal to take advantage of the roll-out of 4G wireless network in the United States.<\/p>\n
American Tower shares were up about 3 percent in premarket trading as investors cheered the acquisition, the latest in a string of deals in the sector.<\/p>\n
American Tower said it would pay about $3.3 billion in cash and assume about $1.5 billion of debt.<\/p>\n
The deal will add about 15,700 towers in the United States and Costa Rica to American Tower’s existing portfolio of 56,000 towers worldwide.<\/p>\n
Tower companies are in a scramble to beef up their assets across the world as an explosive growth in data traffic is pushing carriers to spend heavily on upgrading their networks.<\/p>\n
Major US telecom companies such as AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc have increased their spending budgets for the current year.<\/p>\n
Global Tower, formed in 2003 by acquiring 187 towers from American Tower, is controlled by a consortium of funds managed by the Macquarie Group.<\/p>\n
The latest deal comes a month after American Tower said it would acquire about 4,500 telecom towers in Brazil and Mexico from Latin American telecom service provider NII Holdings Inc for $811 million.<\/p>\n
The deal is expected to immediately add to the company’s adjusted funds from operations and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2013.<\/p>\n
American Tower was advised by Goldman, Sachs & Co and EA Markets Securities, while Global Tower’s adviser was Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.<\/p>\n
ATC sees big returns on Cell C acquisition<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n