American Tower is likely to withdraw its binding offer for the tower portfolio of Wind Telecomunicazioni, according to Italian press reports.
VimpelCom-owned Wind − Italy’s third-largest mobile operator – is looking to sell at least 6,300 sites…
American Tower is likely to withdraw its binding offer for the tower portfolio of Wind Telecomunicazioni, according to Italian press reports.
VimpelCom-owned Wind − Italy’s third-largest mobile operator – is looking to sell at least 6,300 sites for an estimated value of €600-800m (US$708-945m).
In addition to American Tower, shortlisted candidates, which have all submitted binding offers for the assets, include Italian investment fund F2i together with Providence Equity Partners, Mediaset-controlled Ei Towers and Spanish infrastructure group Abertis.
Wind is due to select the winning bidder by the first quarter of the year, a person familiar with the matter told TelecomFinance.
HSBC and Banca Imi are reportedly advising the mobile operator 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.
Last year, American Tower acquired BR Towers, which operates more than 4,600 sites in Brazil, for R$2.55bn (US$954m) and TIM Brasil’s 6,481 telecoms towers for about R$3bn (US$1.1bn), as part of plans to expand in Latin America. It has also agreed to buy 4,800 sites in Nigeria from Bharti Airtel
American Tower did not respond to a request for comment, while Wind declined to comment.
