Australian investment firm Macquarie is set to buy Slovak broadcast infrastructure group Towercom for an undisclosed sum.
It has agreed to buy 100% of the privately-owned group, thought to have initially been valued at around €200m (US$268m), through…
Australian investment firm Macquarie is set to buy Slovak broadcast infrastructure group Towercom for an undisclosed sum.
It has agreed to buy 100% of the privately-owned group, thought to have initially been valued at around €200m (US$268m), through its Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 4 (MEIF4).
The fund closed in April 2013 with €2.7bn (US$3.62bn) in total commitments and its acquisitions to date include gas distribution networks in Germany and the Czech Republic.
Jiri Zrust, managing director for Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets in EMEA, said it was drawn to Towercom because it is a successful business that benefits from operating in a stable, fast-growing economy.
“It has strong client relationships supported by ongoing contracts to service these clients,” he said in an email to SatelliteFinance.
“As such it is a stable and predictable business, which is what the investors in MEIF4 are looking for.”
Towercom, which was owned by Hampden Investments, is Slovakia’s largest television network provider and supplies radio, terrestrial and satellite TV services across the country with 685 towers.
Its main satellite distribution partner is SES, using its ASTRA 3A spacecraft that is in an inclined orbit at 23.5E. The company also provides uplink services from stations in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Rothschild is understood to have run the sale and information memorandums were sent to potentially interested parties in March. Those parties included US-based investor Alinda Capital Partners, Czech towerco České Radiokomunikace, as well as Slovakia’s regional infrastructure funds.
