Digital Bridge Holdings, a communications infrastructure investment firm, is one of the leading bidders for Etihad Etisalat’s portfolio of mobile towers in Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Digital Bridge Holdings, a communications infrastructure investment firm, is one of the leading bidders for Etihad Etisalat’s (AB:EEC) portfolio of mobile towers in Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Etihad Etisalat, which operates under the Mobily brand and is partly owned by the UAE’s Etisalat (ADX:ETISALAT), and Digital Bridge, whose bid is backed by the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) and PE firm Abraaj Group, have reportedly yet to reach a final agreement on a deal.
Mobily’s 10,000 local towers are worth an estimated US$1.5bn-US$2bn.
Digital Bridge is also said to be targeting the towers held by Kuwait-based Zain (KW:ZAIN) in Saudi Arabia.
In late November, TelecomFinance reported that Mobily and Zain were moving ahead with their concurrent tower sales after a six-month pause. Citigroup has been advising Zain, while Mobily has hired TAP Advisors.
Over the past few months, several other potential bidders have been named, including Towershare, Helios Towers, Eaton Towers, IHS, American Tower, SBA Communications, Protelindo, Square1 Infrastructure and TASC Towers of Jordan.
With tower transactions in the kingdom long discussed, either deal would represent significant progress. Market leader STC and Mobily spent several years discussing a possible combination and sale of their tower assets, with the potential involvement of number three player Zain.
In early 2015, Mobily overhauled its management team, following an accounting scandal.
Digital Bridge was founded in 2013 through a partnership between chairman Ben Jenkins, a former Blackstone executive and founder of merchant bank Dering Capital, and CEO Marc Ganzi (pictured), the founder and former CEO of Global Tower Partners (GTP). GTP was sold to American Tower in 2013.
Digital Bridge and Mobily could not be reached to comment on the situation.
