SBA Communications to buy over 2,300 tower sites from Mobilitie for $1.09 bn
22 Feb 2012
US wireless tower operator SBA Communications Corp yesterday agreed to buy more than 2,300 tower sites and some antenna assets from Mobilitie LLC for about $1.09 billion, in order to arm itself from the expected consumer demand for wireless data services in the US.
Under the deal, Florida-based SBA will buy over 2,300 tower sites in the US and Central America and certain indoor and outdoor distributed antenna system (DAS) assets in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York City and Auburn, Alabama.
SBA will pay $850 million in cash and 5.25 million of its shares taking the total transaction value to $1,093 million based on SBA's closing price of $46.27 on 17 February.
SBA estimates the Mobilitie assets will produce approximately $75 million in tower cash flow for the full calendar year 2012, of which approximately $16 million is attributable to the DAS assets.
The company said it would sell the small-antenna assets to Chicago-based telecom infrastructure company ExteNet.
"We are very pleased with the opportunity to acquire these assets," said Jeffrey Stoops, SBA president and CEO. "We believe these assets are high quality, relatively new, well located and have ample capacity for additional tenants. The towers will be very complementary to and readily integrated into our existing portfolio, as they are all located in areas where we are currently conducting business.''
