US giant American Tower is reportedly in talks with Israeli mobile operators Cellcom and Pelephone Communications about buying their towers.
The Israeli antitrust authority has objected to the operators’ plan to share a 4G network, but a…
US giant American Tower is reportedly in talks with Israeli mobile operators Cellcom and Pelephone Communications about buying their towers.
The Israeli antitrust authority has objected to the operators’ plan to share a 4G network, but a sale-and-leaseback agreement would give them an alternative means to cut costs, Globes reported.
The highly-acquisitive US towerco, which reported revenues for the first quarter of US$984.1m, reportedly asked the operators last year whether they were interested in such a transaction and, following the regulator’s objections, the matter is back up for discussion.
Cellcom, Pelephone and rival Golan Telecom inked an agreement to share a 4G network and passive cell site elements last December in an effort to cut costs. According to the Globes report, the antitrust authority objects to this agreement but has not yet issued an official decision. The agreement is also awaiting governmental approval.
Cellcom and Pelephone are expected to look at other ways of cutting costs by sharing infrastructure, one option being to share 3G network antennas.
NYSE-listed American Tower has declined to comment on the matter.
The towerco, which owns or manages 68,000 sites internationally, has made numerous acquisitions in recent years, including buying US towerco Global Tower Partners for US$4.8bn last October. In its Q1 results report last Friday, the company announced the acquisition of 60 sites and other assets from Richland Properties for US$386m, which included taking on US$196.5m of its secured debt.
Outside its core US market, American Tower currently has towers in Latin America, Mexico, Africa, India and Germany.
Cellcom and Pelephone were not immediately available for comment.
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