On June 15, Phoenix Tower International (PTI) announced the acquisition of T4U Holding Brasil, an independent towerco with a portfolio of 529 sites and a pipeline of 250 BTS projects in Brazil. As a result of the deal, the two companies will merge into a new entity, Phoenix Tower do Brasil, and serve the local market with its combined expertise.
PTI was created in 2013 and is owned by funds managed by Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities business. In a press release following the deal, Jasvinder Khaira, Managing Director at Blackstone was quoted saying that “we are thrilled to announce this investment in Brazil, a market where we see considerable growth in the wireless space and where we hope to explore further investment activity more broadly. We believe the combination of PTI and T4U’s experienced teams create a strong foundation from which to build upon T4U’s existing portfolio of assets and pursue additional growth opportunities in the sector.”
Prior to the deal, T4U Holding Brasil was controlled by Israel’s Fishman Group and news sources reported its annual revenues to be around US$75mn with operating profits of approximately US$25mn. T4U is one of Brazil’s oldest telecom tower companies, with a portfolio of high yielding assets, many in unique locations. Back in October 2014, T4U put a stop to its IPO in light of the upcoming presidential election and the uncertain political climate. T4U was then expected to file an amended prospectus to launch its IPO before the end of 2014 but failed to do so – we now know why!
Phoenix Tower International tower count
Dagan Kasavana, CEO of PTI, spoke briefly with TowerXchange following the announcement and highlighted that “the T4U acquisition provides our customers a top notch team of tower executives located in Brazil and high quality portfolio of assets across the country to address their needs. This allows us to have strategic conversations with our customers in a way that is unique and we look forward to continuing the scale the business in Brazil through Build-to-Suit, co-location and additional acquisition opportunities!”
Dagan and several other senior members of his management team built their reputation in the M&A business of Global Tower Partners, which completed a successful exit to American Tower.
With less than two years of activity, PTI has been able to gather a portfolio of what will soon be 1,000 sites via organic growth and via several strategic acquisitions from T4U, American Tower, TOCSA and, we suspect, via an investment in the Dominican Republic, where Teletower Dominicana had previously been the sole towerco. TowerXchange is eager to keep following the progresses of this highly entrepreneurial organisation which is already established as one of CALA’s top five towercos.
