US towerco SBA Communications has agreed to acquire over 2,300 towers in the US and Central America from certain affiliates of infrastructure provider Mobilitie for US$1.1bn. SBA said that it will also acquire certain indoor and outdoor distributed…
US towerco SBA Communications has agreed to acquire over 2,300 towers in the US and Central America from certain affiliates of infrastructure provider Mobilitie for US$1.1bn.
SBA said that it will also acquire certain indoor and outdoor distributed antenna systems (DAS) assets in the transaction.
SBA’s payment will be composed of US$850m in cash and the issue of 5.25m SBA Class A common shares. The cash will come from three sources: cash in hand, existing credit facilities, and US$500m in financing commitments from Barclays and JP Morgan.
These two banks are also SBA’s financial advisers for the transaction, while its legal adviser is Greenberg Traurig.
Mobilitie’s financial advisers are Moelis & Company and BofA Merrill Lynch, and Goodwin Procter provided legal advice.
According to SBA investment management firm Oaktree Capital Management’s legal adviser is Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, but SBA not specify Oaktree’s role in the transaction.
SBA and Mobilitie were not immediately available for comment.
The deal is expected to close in Q2 2012.
SBA also said that it would seek to negotiate a sale of the DAS assets to Extenet Systems, a DAS provider in which SBA has invested.
SBA was part of a group of investors that made an investment of US$128.4m in Extenet in a funding round completed in early 2010.
