About an hour ago, Vertical Bridge, a privately-owned REIT focused on the ownership of wireless communication towers, announced acquisitions of towers from iHeartMedia and U.S. Cellular. iHeartMedia has agreed to sell a select portfolio of its tower assets to Vertical Bridge for up to $400 million. This transaction, which is still subject to due diligence and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close in Q1 2015. “This is a great example of how we continue to optimize our balance sheet and maximize liquidity — and how we continually review our entire portfolio of assets to ensure we operate them in the most efficient way possible and invest our resources in the highest return opportunities,” said Richard J. Bressler, President and Chief Financial Officer of iHeartMedia, Inc. There will be no impact on the company’s broadcast capabilities and operations; at closing, the company will enter into a lease with respect to the sold tower assets that will ensure the ability of its broadcast operations to continue without interruption. “We are excited to add this high quality tower portfolio to our existing assets,” said Alexander L. Gellman, CEO of Vertical Bridge Holdings, LLC. “We are looking forward to a strong partnership with iHeartMedia. In addition to being a premier broadcast portfolio, these sites already have many broadband telephony and data tenants and the capacity and potential to add many more. With this latest transaction, Vertical Bridge now has approximately 2,000 revenue producing sites that are owned or under definitive agreement.”
U.S. Cellular also announced today that they have entered into an agreement with Vertical Bridge to sell 595 towers for approximately $159 million. This transaction is also expected to close in the first quarter of 2015. “Vertical Bridge is excited to acquire this portfolio of core towers in large metropolitan markets,” said Gellman. “Many of these sites are in locations that would be very difficult to replace. We are also happy to work again with a quality counterparty like U.S. Cellular.” Wells Fargo Securities, LLC and TD Securities (USA) LLC served as financial advisors to U.S. Cellular on this transaction. “We are very pleased to announce this transaction,” said Kenneth R. Meyers, U.S. Cellular president and CEO. “We will use the proceeds from the sale of these non-strategic assets to invest in other long-term investments that position U.S. Cellular for future growth opportunities.”
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