CCI Sells Australian Subsidiary to Fund Small Cells

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Crown Castle International announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Australian subsidiary (CCAL) to a consortium of investors led by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.0 billion in cash, or approximately $1.6 billion assuming an exchange rate of 0.80 US dollars to the Australian dollar. Upon consummation of the transaction, Crown Castle expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $1.3 billion after accounting for its ownership interest, repayment of intercompany debt owed to it by CCAL, and estimated transaction fees and expenses. “The sale of CCAL allows us to redeploy capital towards our growing small cell networks, which we expect will be accretive to our long-term AFFO and dividend per share growth rates,” stated Ben Moreland, Crown Castle’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We believe we are in the early stages of small cells deployment and are excited by the opportunities that we see ahead of us. While CCAL has been a great contributor to our business, our decision to divest this business is opportunistic and allows us to re-allocate capital to growth enhancing initiatives in the US market, which we believe is the most attractive wireless market in the world for wireless investment. ”

Spencer Kurn at New Street Research noted, “This deal was highly anticipated and the multiple paid was in-line with expectations. The transaction makes strategic sense; it allows CCI to focus all of their efforts on the U.S. and on U.S. small cells in particular. The Australian towers were good assets, growing revenue at roughly double the rate organically than CCI’s legacy US towers. The sale should dampen CCI’s overall growth rate slightly; however, Australia only comprises 5% of CCI’s site rental revenue and the slowdown will likely be more than offset once CCI acquires Sunesys later this year. CCI’s small cells strategy is still in early innings and initial results on look promising.”

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.