Spanish infrastructure group Abertis is still assessing the potential acquisition of Wind Telecomunicazioni’s telecoms towers.
In a stock exchange filing today, the company said it has not yet decided whether to submit a binding offer for the Italian…
Spanish infrastructure group Abertis is still assessing the potential acquisition of Wind Telecomunicazioni’s telecoms towers.
In a stock exchange filing today, the company said it has not yet decided whether to submit a binding offer for the Italian assets, which reportedly consist of at least 6,300 sites for an estimated value of €600-800m (US$748-997m).
VimpelCom-owned Wind − Italy’s third-largest mobile operator − was reportedly expecting binding offers by 15 December but the deadline has now been extended to 22 December. The carrier is looking to close a deal by early 2015.
At the end of October, TelecomFinance learnt that Abertis was looking to lodge a bid for Wind’s tower portfolio. Shortly after, Italian investment fund F2i, together with Providence Equity Partners, submitted a non-bidding offer for the assets.
Other rumoured suitors include American Tower, which recently agreed to buy TIM Brasil’s 6,481 telecoms towers for about R$3bn (US$1.2bn), and Mediaset-controlled Ei Towers.
HSBC and Banca Imi are reportedly advising Wind on the sale. Proceeds from the tower sale will be used to reduce the operator’s debt burden, which stood at nearly €10bn as of 30 September 2014.
Should its bid for the Wind portfolio be successful, Madrid-based Abertis would close its second Italian tower deal in less than a year. Back in May, the group acquired TowerCo for €94.6m (US$129.7m) from Italian motorway operator Atlantia.
Abertis is also interested in Portugal Telecom’s planned disposal of 3,000 towers and is watching what Orange Spain and Telecom Italia may choose to do with their own sites.
Confirms ATT IPO plans
The company also said that, as part of its 2015-2017 strategic plan, it continues to work on the planned IPO of its recently-formed tower unit, Abertis Telecom Terrestre (ATT), which was first announced at the end of October.
ATT, which comprises 7,700 mobile and broadcast towers, is due to be listed on the Madrid stock exchange in the first half of 2015, the company said.
Proceeds from the offering, which could reportedly be valued at US$3.8bn, will be used to grow the group’s toll road business, both organically and via M&A, and to increase its financial liquidity and shareholder remuneration.
