US investment firm Providence Equity Partners has begun a sale process for its Brazilian tower company Grupo TorreSur, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The private equity firm has mandated Credit Suisse to assist with the disposal, the…
US investment firm Providence Equity Partners has begun a sale process for its Brazilian tower company Grupo TorreSur, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The private equity firm has mandated Credit Suisse to assist with the disposal, the person told TelecomFinance.
TorreSur has more than 6,000 sites in Brazil and is the largest independent towerco in the country. It could fetch as much as US$2bn, according to a Bloomberg report. Providence is said to be pitching to the US’ three big towercos: American Tower, SBA Communications and Crown Castle.
Another towerco reported to be up for sale is BR Towers – founded in 2012 by GP Investments and an arm of Banco Bradesco – which is said to have mandated Deutsche Bank.
BR Towers should fetch around US$1bn, one person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, which was the first to report the two towerco sales.
Providence declined to comment while BR Towers did not reply to a request for comment before the press deadline.
In addition to the potential sale of the PE-backed towercos, Telecom Italia is being advised by Morgan Stanley as it looks to offload TIM Brasil’s tower assets.
The Italian incumbent previously briefed that it expected to receive non-binding offers by the end of May and that there had been a high level of interest in the sites from both financial and strategic investors. Goldman Sachs’ Cell Cite Solutions and JP Morgan’s Brazilian hedge fund Gavea Investimentos have emerged as the leading bidders, according to reports.
Meanwhile Oi, which is close to completing its merger with Portugal Telecom, has indicated it is open to disposing sites. In a recent conference call CEO Zeinal Bava said it could sell another 1,500 to 2,000 towers in the medium term.
Oi has already sold more than 4,100 sites in the past year in two separate transactions with US towerco SBA Communications which raised US$1.3bn. American Tower has also been acquisitive in the country and is the largest towerco in Brazil.
