Crown Castle intends to issue new senior notes in order to part-finance its lease of towers from T-Mobile USA. In a statement, the US towerco said it is commencing an offering of US$1.65bn senior notes due 2023, which together with cash on hand and…
Crown Castle intends to issue new senior notes in order to part-finance its lease of towers from T-Mobile USA.
In a statement, the US towerco said it is commencing an offering of US$1.65bn senior notes due 2023, which together with cash on hand and funds from its revolving credit facility would finance its transaction with T-Mobile.
The notes will be offered to US institutional investors.
Moody’s assigned a B1 rating to the notes. As part of the rating action, it also upgraded the senior secured credit facilities at Crown Castle Operating Company to Ba2 from Ba3 and the rating on the secured notes at CC Holdings to Baa2 from Baa3. The changes “reflect the expected change in the composition of the capital structure,” said the rating agency.
As TelecomFinance previously reported, T-Mobile USA agreed to sell approximately 7,200 towers to Crown Castle for US$2.4bn, with T-Mobile to leaseback the towers for at least 10 years.
It was announced today that Deutsche Telekom-subsidiary T-Mobile USA will merge with MetroPCS, in a deal which is expected to create combined company revenue of US$24.8bn. CrownCastle noted subsequently that T-Mobile and MetroPCS represent approximately 17% and 5%, respectively, of Crown Castle’s consolidated site rental revenues.
The about 1,400 towers which are currently shared by T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS represent less than 2%of Crown Castle’s consolidated site rental revenues, it said.
