TowerXchange offers its readers an updated guide to the Who’s Who in CALA telecom infrastructure, featuring key towercos, MNOs and investors active in the region and latest major deals and transactions.
Accel: One of the leading venture capital firms in the world with over US$8.8bn in capital under management, Accel has funded the likes of Facebook, Dropbox and Spotify. QMC Telecom is among its investments in the tower sector.
Albright Capital Management (ACM): A private equity firm specialised in emerging markets. In
April 2016, ACM granted a US$45mn five-year term credit facility to Innovattel LLC for the development of build-to-suit projects in Argentina.
AlfaSite: AlfaSite is a Brazilian build to suit (BTS) firm part of Grupo Alfa which also owns a tower manufacturer (Metal Alfa), an MSP (Alfa Erb) and an energy equipment company (Alfa Energia).
Algar Telecom: Algar Telecom is a Brazilian mobile operator serving approximately 1.5mn subscribers across Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Santa Catarina and Paraná among others via 31,000km of fibre. It currently offers 3G services and is working alongside Nokia Networks to launch 4G LTE.
ALTÁN Redes: The company was founded in 2016 in Mexico and enjoys a Public-Private Partnership with the Organismo Promotor de Inversiones en Telecomunicaciones (Promtel). ALTÁN Redes is deploying a wholesale shared network utilising the 700MHz spectrum. Red Compartida will significantly improve the footprint coverage of wireless voice and data services in the country; this, through a 4G-LTE & 5G ready network built to reach 92.2% of the population, including regions that up until now have been neglected by traditional carriers. ALTÁN is currently on target with its aggressive coverage plan.
The company has Grupo Multitel as strategic partner and Morgan Stanley, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), FFLATAM-15-2, Hansam, S.A., Isla Guadalupe Investments as investors and the IFC as development institution.
Altice: Altice took over Orange Dominicana and Tricom in 2014, respectively the second and fourth MNOs in the Dominican Republic. Orange Dominicana and Tricom both offer 3G and 4G LTE across the Dominican Republic. In 2018, Altice sold its Dominican assets to Phoenix Tower International.
Altman Vilandrie & Co: AV&Co. has extensive tower industry experience spanning tens of engagements (including Latin America, Africa, Asia, North America, Europe) over ten years, including tower operator strategies as well as tower transaction due diligences. Their recent work has addressed a number of relevant topics such as the impact of small cells, the future opportunity for DAS and the changing role of rooftops.
América Móvil (AMX): AMX is one of the largest mobile network operators in the world and part of the Carlos Slim’s group of companies, serving approximately 284mn mobile subscribers across fourteen markets.
Back in 2014, AMX faced regulatory pressure to reduce its dominant position in Mexico, which forced it to carve-out over 11,000 of its telecom towers and create Telesites, a separate infrastructure entity (see Telesites for more details). Apart from the Telesites venture, which has already expended into Costa Rica, AMX has not faced regulatory or balance sheet pressure to divest assets elsewhere, and thus has favoured retaining their towers.
América Móvil operates as Claro in most of its CALA markets and it offers both 3G and 4G LTE. In Mexico, where it operates under the Telcel brand, the operator is now offering 3G and 4G LTE. In January, the MNO announced the acquisition of Telefónica’s operations in El Salvador and Guatemala. The Guatemala acquisition was completed in the same month while the El Salvador one is still pending regulatory approval.
American Tower (AMT): The world’s largest independent commercial towerco, AMT need no introduction within this publication. With its headquarters in the U.S., AMT operates a global portfolio of over 170,000 sites across the U.S., South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.
AMT is the leading towerco in the CALA region in terms of its tower count, with over 37,500 sites across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Paraguay.
Amzak Capital: Amzak Capital Management is the private investment firm of the Kazma family. The Kazma’s developed and operated cable systems in Canada and the U.S. until 1992, when they entered the Latin American markets, with operations in Aruba, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago and Martinique. In 1997, they built and operated Amnet, Central America’s largest cable television/triple play company, which was sold to Millicom International Cellular S.A. in 2008. Originally from Canada but based in the U.S. since 1979, Amzak counts BTS Towers among its current investments.
Analysys Mason: A recognised global consulting firm specialized, among others, in tower market analysis and due diligence.
ATP Torres Unidas: Part of the Digital Bridge group of companies, ATP Torres Unidas owns a portfolio of 2,300 towers across Colombia, Chile and Peru as well as manages 32,200+ master sites in Colombia and Peru.
Aplicanet: Aplicanet is a BTS firm active in Ecuador, where it runs a portfolio of around 100 towers.
Atis Group: Founded in 2016, Atis is an independent Argentinian towerco with a portfolio of around 100 sites. The company received a US$100mn injection from Patria Investimentos and is planning to build around 150 more towers before the end of 2019.
AT&T: AT&T made its entrance in the Mexican mobile market thanks to the acquisition of Iusacell, Unefon (part of Iusacell) and Nextel back in 2014. AT&T has 17.7mn subscribers as of Q1 2019 and a 13% market share. AT&T has inherited networks largely divested to towercos, but has still found sufficient capacity on those inherited sites, such that the anticipated volume of new build from AT&T’s market entrance has been slow to materialise.
Axtel: Axtel is a Mexican operator offering internet, telephone and TV services in 45 cities across the country. After selling 142 sites to AMT in 2017, in 2019 it sold its fibre business in five Mexican cities to Megacable for US$60.17mn.
Avantel: Avantel is the fourth mobile network operator in Colombia where it offers 3G and 4G LTE services.
CALA top towercos - Q1 2019
Balesia: Balesia is a BTS focused towerco operating in CALA and owned by International Tower Corporation (ITC).
Barclays: Barclays’ global investment banking division offers a leading Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) franchise. The TMT team has significant experience representing leading tower operators as well as telecom service providers around the globe on buy and sell side assignments. In this capacity, Barclays has supported its clients in the valuation and/or marketing of tower portfolios as well as the negotiation of various agreements associated with these transactions.
Berkshire Partners: Berkshire Partners is a leading private investment firm acting through nine private equity funds with more than US$16bn in aggregate capital commitments. Berkshire Partners has substantial experience of tower industry investments, having been an early stage investor in Crown Castle and the investment arm behind Torres Unidas until its acquisition by Andean Tower Partners.
Bitel: Bitel is the fourth mobile network operator in Peru, wholly owned by Vietnam’s largest MNO Viettel and mostly focused on serving rural communities across the Andean country. Bitel offers an extensive 4G network across Peru and has the biggest fibre network among Peruvian operators with more than 33,000km.
Blackstone: Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities (Tac Opps) specialises in time-sensitive and complex ventures and is the investment firm behind Phoenix Tower International’s expansion in the U.S. and CALA. Blackstone has previous experience of the towerco asset class having invested in Global Tower Partners, which they successfully exited through the sale to AMT.
Brazil Tower Company (BTC): BTC is a Brazilian BTS focused towerco with a portfolio of 1,200 towers, owned by private investors, including the company’s CEO Dr Chahram Zolfaghari, and 1848 Capital.
In 2018, the towerco has closed a US$104mn long-term senior secured debt financing with three international lenders led by Cordiant Capital of Montreal, Canada.
BTS Towers: A build-to-suit firm formed by the same executives behind NMS. Its shareholders include Cartesian Capital Group, Amzak Capital and the International Finance Corporation. BTS presently operates in Mexico, Colombia and Peru.
Cable & Wireless: Acquired by Liberty Global in November 2015, it serves 3.7mn subscribers in fifteen markets across the Caribbean and Latin America under the FLOW brand.
Cartesian Capital Group: A global private equity firm with proven expertise in assisting closely-held companies to expand internationally. Since its inception in 2006, the firm has managed more than US$2.7bn in committed capital. Cartesian was the founding investor of NMS and is currently behind BTS Towers. The firm also holds a minority participation into Grupo TorreSur.
Centennial Towers: Centennial Towers is a BTS firm active in Colombia, Brazil and Mexico funded by Breslau Capital, a New York based firm with presence in both Panama and Tel Aviv. To date, Centennial runs a portfolio of approximately 1,500 sites.
CMA Strategy Consulting: CMA is a boutique consulting firm focused on the telecoms, media and high-tech segments. With offices in Boston and San Francisco, the firm has done extensive due diligence and financial consulting in Central and South America, EMEA and Asia in addition to its work in the United States.
Continental Towers: Continental Towers is a BTS firm focused on deploying sites in Central America. Originally a joint venture between Terra Projects and Credit Suisse, it then received a US$120mn loan package from the IFC to further fund its Central American expansion in 2012. Since then, the company has been quite secretive and to date, it operates in Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, Honduras and Panama.
Cell Site Solutions (CSS): CSS was created in 2013 as a joint venture between Gávea Investimentos and Goldman Sachs. Focused on BTS projects, co-locations, DAS and full turnkey services in Brazil, it runs a portfolio of over 2,000 sites across the country. To date, the company is fully owned by Goldman Sachs and it has branched out to Argentina via Cell Site Solutions Argentina, which was founded in 2016.
Citi: One of the world’s leading tower transaction advisory groups can be found within the TMT team at Citi.
CyCSA: The Argentinian engineering firm was acquired by American Tower in December 2016. With the deal, American Tower secured over 1,000 urban wireless sites, 2,500km of fibre-optic network and exclusive rights to deploy mobile infrastructure in various locations across Argentina.
Delmec: The tower experts in consultation and engineering, providing global solutions to operators, towercos and regulators on standards, guidance and due diligence for portfolio management. Engaging audit, assessment and analysis for structural enhancement, capacity and maintenance as individual activities or by way of managed services.
Deutsche Bank: Deutsche Bank provides M&A advisory services as well as financing services in the tower space, including both equity and debt products. Deutsche Bank has been involved in the tower sector on a global basis, successfully executing transactions in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Digicel: Digicel is a leading MNO with a presence in over twenty countries across Central America and the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Panama, El Salvador and Haiti. Since 2017, Digicel has started to divest its assets and has sold towers to Phoenix Tower International in El Salvador, Jamaica and the French Antilles.
Digital Bridge: Digital Bridge Holdings, LLC, was formed in 2013 through a partnership between Ben Jenkins of Dering Capital (and formerly of The Blackstone Group) and Marc Ganzi (former founder and CEO of Global Tower Partners).
The firm is involved in the acquisition, funding and management of firms in the infrastructure sector such as Mexico Tower Partners, Vertical Bridge, Andean Tower Partners, ExteNet Systems, DataBank and Vantage Data Centres.
Digital Colony: A global investment firm behind the operations of Digital Bridge, active within the global digital infrastructure industry.
Ecuador Tower Company (ETC): ETC is a BTS firm founded by executives behind Brazil Tower Company.
Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones (ENACOM): Part of the Secretaría de Modernización (Argentina’s Modernization Ministry), ENACOM is the telecoms regulator in the country. The entity is trying to support both MNOs and towerco through different regulatory initiatives and the Argentinian government aims to develop a law for which ENACOM would become the “unique window” and decision maker of all deployment permits in the country.
Entel: Created back in the sixties by the Chilean government, Entel was privatised in the early nineties. Since then, the company has become the largest mobile network operator in Chile and in 2013 acquired Nextel de Perú for US$400mn. To date, Entel owns approximately 3,000 sites in Chile and 2,400 in Peru and offers 3G and 4G LTE services in both countries. While the company has not sold any towers, Entel have increasingly relied on third party towercos for new sites.
Entel SA: Entel SA is the Bolivian State-owned telecom company which was nationalised in 2008. Former shareholders include Telecom Italia which settled a dispute with the Bolivian government over the nationalisation for US$100mn. The operator now offers 3G and 4G LTE services in the country.
EY: TMT strategy and corporate finance advisory team with extensive experience of advising on tower transactions.
First Corporate Finance Advisors: First is a financial advisory firm based in Argentina.
The company specialises in M&A, valuation, infrastructure advisory and securitisation. Serving clients throughout Latin America, First is now actively involved in the opening of the Argentinian telecom tower market.
Gávea Investimentos: Gávea was founded back in 2003 by the former president of the Central Bank of Brazil, Arminio Fraga. The fund invested approximately US$150mn to create CSS back in 2013 in a joint US$300mn investment with Goldman Sachs and sold its shares to the latter in 2016.
GME Alliance: GME Alliance is a private towerco active in the Argentinian market.
Golden Comunicaciones: Created in April 2016 via a joint venture between Goldman Sachs and Innova Capital Partners, the BTS firm is focused on serving the Colombian telecom market and headed by CEO Herman Torres.
Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs returned to the Brazilian private-equity market with its 2013 investment in CSS, alongside Gávea Investimentos. In April 2016, Goldman Sachs created a joint venture with Innova Capital Partners for the creation of Golden Comunicaciones, a BTS firm focused on the Colombian market. In the same year, the firm took over Gávea’s participation in CSS.
GP Investments: GP Investments is a leading investment firm in Latin America and was the firm behind BR Towers, one of the leading towercos in Brazil with its 4,200 sites that was sold to American Tower in 2014 for US$978mn.
Grupo TorreSur: With its 6,500 towers portfolio, GTS is the third largest towerco in Brazil and the largest private towerco in CALA. Headed by Jim Eisenstein, one of the pioneers of the U.S. tower industry and co-founder of AMT, GTS is funded by Providence Equity Partners, one of the leading equity firms in the global TMT industry.
Hardiman Telecommunications: A unique consultancy equally capable of advising on engineering and operational issues as they are on commercial strategy and corporate finance. Extensive experience advising on both the buy-side and sell-side in tower transactions.
Highline do Brasil: Currently headed by Fernando Viotti, Highline was created back in November 2012 to serve the Brazilian market with its BTS and co-location services. In 2017, Highline’s portfolio of 970 sites was acquired by SBA Communications in a private deal. The company is now back in business and has developed a growing portfolio of 205 new sites. Its investor Patria has recently expanded into Argentina via Atis Group.
Housatonic Partners: Housatonic Partners is a U.S. private equity firm with over US$1bn in capital under management. QMC Telecom is among its investments in the telecom infrastructure sector.
Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE): ICE is the State-owned electricity and telecom provider of Costa Rica. Operating under brand Kölbi, the company is the leading MNO in the country ahead of Movistar and Claro. ICE has to date retained its portfolio of ~1,000 towers, but has used towercos for new build and co-location.
International Finance Corporation (IFC): A member of the World Bank Group, the IFC is the largest financing institution in the world entirely focused on the private sector, with specific attention to developing and underdeveloped countries. In CALA, the IFC is involved in various debt financing projects with the likes of Phoenix Tower do Brasil, ON Telecom, Continental Towers and ALTÁN Redes.
IIMT: IIMT is a BTS and co-location firm active in Mexico where it runs approximately 600 sites. In addition to its own portfolio, IIMT enjoys an agreement with the Federal Electricity Commission in Mexico to utilise its infrastructure for telecom purposes.
Indigo Capital: Indigo Capital was founded in 1998 in New York and is an investment firm focused on private equity in Latin America. Indigo Capital counts Torrecom and Torres Unidas among its current and past investments.
ING: Leading Dutch bank with considerable experience of providing debt finance to the tower industry. In April 2018, ING Bank (Brazil) and QMC Telecom announced the closing of a R$150mn (US$43mn) Delayed Draw Credit Facility and Team Loan.
Innova Capital Partners: Innova is a global investor focused on energy and infrastructure projects and the investing arm behind Golden Comunicaciones (Colombia), via a joint venture with Goldman Sachs.
Innovattel: Operating under the brand Torresec in most markets and headed by Manuel Aviles, Innovattel is a Puerto Rico based BTS firm active in Colombia, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Argentina with a total portfolio of nearly 1,000 sites. In February 2019, Torresec sealed an agreement with the city of Neuquen (Argentina) for the installation of 50 sites.
Intelli Site Solutions: Intelli Site Solutions is a Mexican towerco focused on BTS projects as well as indoor and outdoor DAS. To date, the towerco runs a portfolio of over 300 towers across Mexico and enjoys an agreement with the Federal Electricity Commission (FCE) to utilise its infrastructure for telecom purposes.
Internet Para Todos: Formed by Telefónica, Facebook, IADB and CAF, Internet Para Todos is an innovative open access wholesale infrastructure operator that aims to provide connectivity in rural areas across Peru, where 3.2mn people only have access to voice services and 2.8mn don’t enjoy any coverage at all. The company will be deploying 4G technology on 3,130 sites that acquired from Telefónica and will build 1,000 towers between 2020 and 2021 with a total investment of US$100 mn, allowing Peruvian MNOs to provide signal on remote locations.
JP Morgan: Leading TMT advisory team with extensive experience in towers, including some of the landmark transactions.
KPR Consult: Renowned ‘tower doctors’ – go-to guys for structural and technical due diligence, improvement capex planning, decommissioning and just about anything to do with tower design and maintenance.
Macquarie Group: Australian Macquarie is a leading investment and advisory firm globally active in the telecom tower sector. Among its notable operations: investment in Mexico Tower Partners (via the Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund and in conjunction with Digital Bridge), acquisition of InSite Wireless (Puerto Rico, U.S. and Canada) and participation in a consortium which acquired Crown Castle Australia (now Axicom).
Madison Dearborn Partners: MDP is the U.S. based private equity firm behind BTS firm Centennial Towers.
Message Center Management (MCM, Inc.): MCM is a U.S. independent developer and owner of telecom towers with a portfolio of around 800 sites. Its management team is among the leading forces behind two CALA towercos, Torrecom and Torres Unidas (prior to the sale to ATP).
Mexico Tower Partners (MTP): MTP is the largest independent towerco in Mexico beside American Tower. MTP was originally formed as a joint venture between Digital Bridge and Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund. To date, the company owns over 2,050 sites across Mexico and is run by an experienced team led by José Sola, whose background includes successful spells within Global Tower Partners and Telefónica.
MHC Holdings: MHC is an investment firm focused on telecoms and emerging markets based in Panama. The firm backed Torres Andinas until the towerco sold its assets to SBA Communications and stopped operating in the region.
Millicom: Millicom is an international telecom company active in fourteen markets in Africa and Latin America, mostly trading under the brand Tigo. In the CALA region, Millicom is active in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Colombia and Bolivia.
In 2019, Millicom initiated the acquisition of Telefónica’s operations in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua for an estimated US$1.65bn.
Montezuma & Porto: Montezuma & Porto is a Peruvian based law firm specialised in telecommunications, IT, Internet, data protection and other digital services. Partners Oscar Montezuma Panez and José Miguel Porto Urrutia have advised towercos and mobile operators on a variety of strategic issues.
MVP Capital: Financial brokers and advisors active in the U.S. since 1987. Clayton Funk, one of its Managing Directors, has been personally involved in 125 sale and leaseback transactions and although focused on the U.S., he always keeps an eye South of the border.
MX Towers: MX Towers is a towerco created by executives previously involved in the Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund focused on offering DAS and other alternative solutions across Mexico. In 2018, MX Towers announced the acquisition of 72 towers from Maxcom in a sale and leaseback deal.
NII Holdings: NII Holdings was the company behind the Nextel brand. In 2019, the last Nextel brand of its portfolio - in Brazil - was sold to América Móvil for US$905mn. NII has received approval to dissolve its holdings once the deal is fully closed.
Between 2013 and 2015, NII Holdings run the Nextel brand in Chile, Peru and Mexico but then sold them respectively to Novator, Entel Chile and AT&T. Additionally, in 2013 NII Holdings divested 6,396 towers in Brazil and Mexico (to American Tower) and faced bankruptcy in 2015.
In 2016, NII Holdings sold all its remaining shares in Nextel Argentina to media giant Clarín Group. Nextel Argentina is now owned by Clarín’s subsidiary Cablevisión and is the fourth mobile operator of Argentina.
Norton Rose Fulbright: Norton Rose Fulbright is a Legal 500 law firm serving clients in a multitude of industries. Among them, the law firm provides services in the infrastructure and TMT arenas and is able to help its CALA clients via its offices in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.
Oi: Oi is the fourth mobile network operator of Brazil offering 3G and 4G LTE services. Since 2012, Oi has divested the majority of its 11,000+ towers across Brazil to Grupo TorreSur, BR Towers and SBA Communications and is reportedly seeking to divest the rest of its unsold assets.
In June 2016, Oi filed for bankruptcy protection for a total amount of US$19bn (the largest filing in the history of Brazil). The carrier has since resumed its activities, reporting a Q119 net profit of US$170mn and working to reduce its financial expense to reflect the in-court re-organisation agreement with creditors.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC): OPIC is a U.S. Government financial institution that provides capital to private equity funds. They supported IHS and Helios Towers in Africa and also financed Apollo Towers in Myanmar, being the first U.S. institution to invest in the country. They work with IFC, Cartesian and Amzak Capital among others. In addition, they just approved a $US26mn allocation to support BTS expansion across Peru and Ecuador.
Orange: Orange is the leading French telecom operator founded in 1988 with operations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. In the Americas it is active in Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana where it offers 3G services. Its Dominican Republic unit was sold to Altice in 2013.
P2 - Pátria: Pátria is a leading private equity firm active in Brazil in a variety of sectors including infrastructure and counting Blackstone among its partners. In 2012, Pátria invested in Highline do Brasil and in 2015 in Odata, a data centre infrastructure and co-location service company. As of 2017, P2’s latest investment in the sector is ATIS Group, an independent towerco active in Argentina.
Peppertree Capital: Peppertree is a private equity fund focused on growth equity, recapitalisation and buyout opportunities in the telecom infrastructure industry. Mostly focused in the U.S. where it has backed companies such as Branch Towers, 4G Towers, Clearview Tower Company and Light Tower Holdings, it keeps an eye on opportunities in Central and South America.
Peterson Partners: Peterson Partners is a private equity and venture capital firm primarily active in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Mexico, Brazil and India and counts QMC Telecom among its PE investments.
Phillips Lytle LLP: Phillips Lytle is a U.S. based law firm offering a wide range of services. Partner Douglas Dimitroff is an expert in DAS and other het-net solutions and is able to advise U.S. as well as international clients on their business and regulatory dynamics.
Phoenix Tower do Brasil (PTB): Phoenix Tower do Brasil is the Brazilian sister company of Phoenix Tower International (PTI), created after the acquisition of T4U Holdings by PTI. Run by former BR Towers’ CEO Mauricio Giusti and backed by Blackstone, PTB is the largest independent towerco in Brazil with a portfolio of over 1,550 sites. In recent news, PTB acquired small cell, DAS and urban solution company K2-Towers, led by Leandro Simões.
Phoenix Tower International (PTI): PTI was founded in 2013 by Dagan Kasavana, the M&A mastermind behind the GTP rollup strategy and sale to American Tower. PTI now owns and operates approximately 5,280 towers across the CALA region and in the U.S.
PTI has achieved its current scale via both organic and inorganic growth and is active in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Antilles, Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama, Peru and the United States.
Plata Tower Company: Created in 2016 by one of the executives behind Brazil Tower Company and Arqueiro Telecom - Alex Sepehri-Nik - Plata Tower Company is a BTS firm active in Argentina.
Providence Equity Partners: One of the largest global private equity firms operating in the TMT industry with US$54bn in assets under management across complementary private equity and credit businesses. Providence is an investment partner of Brazilian towerco Grupo TorreSur.
QMC Telecom: QMC Telecom was founded back in 2008 and currently runs a portfolio of approximately 1,400 towers as well as rooftops and DAS in Brazil, Colombia, Puerto Rico as well as Mexico, where it operates under the Conex brand.
In July 2018, the towerco sealed a financing agreement with ING Bank for US$50mn in addition to the US$250mn previously raised.
RBC Capital Markets: RBC Capital Markets is a Canadian investment bank part of the Royal Bank of Canada. Jonathan Atkin, Managing Director of RBC’s Telecom Research, is one of the most respected analysts in the global telecom and tower space and regular at TowerXchange Meetups.
Rent-A-Tower: Rent-A-Tower is a BTS firm active in the Mexican market.
SBA Communications (SBA): With almost 30,000 towers across the U.S., Central and South America and Canada, SBA is one of the top ten towercos in the world. SBA runs over 13,000 sites across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru.
The towerco’s latest deals include the acquisition of Highline do Brasil, Torres Andinas as well as Tigo El Salvador’s portfolios.
Scotiabank: In November 2015, Scotiabank granted to Phoenix Tower Dominicana (Phoenix Tower International subsidiary) a US$45mn five-year credit facility to finance the acquisition of Teletower Dominicana and further develop its portfolio in the country. In April 2017, Phoenix Tower International sealed another loan facility for US$120mn with Scotiabank to finance wireless infrastructure across Latin America and the Canadian bank also advised the towerco during the acquisition of 1,049 towers from Altice Dominicana back in July 2018.
Among its latest involvements, Scotiabank acted as lead arranger and bookrunner for the financing of the Andean Tower Partners’ acquisition of Torres Unidas and acted as the buyer’s financial advisor.
Sercomtel: Sercomtel is a local mobile network operator serving the Brazilian region of Paraná.
Silver Swan Capital: Silver Swan Capital, a NY-based investment firm, sealed a US$40mn funding deal with Brazil Tower Company in August 2016 to finance the towerco expansion plans across Brazil.
Skysites: Skysites is an infrastructure firm active in Brazil focused on BTS, small cells, co-locations and iDAS. The company is led by Roberto Massaru Nishikawa.
Southern Cross Group: Southern Cross Group is a private equity firm focused on Latin America with offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and the U.S. Mexican BTS and MSP firm Even Telecom is among its latest investments in the telecom infrastructure industry.
Telecommunications Partners: Telecommunications Partners is a BTS firm active in the Peruvian market.
Telecom Argentina: The Argentinian MNO is the market leader by subscribers. After the merger with Cablevision, the cable broadband unit of Grupo Clarín, Telecom Argentina absorbed Nextel’s portfolio and the new consolidated giant announced a two-year investment plan of US$5,000mn to boost connectivity through a considerable infrastructure upgrade and expansion.
The company has a portfolio of 6,553 sites made of 5,084 owned towers and 1,469 co-locations and they are planning to build around 700 towers before the end of the year.
Telefónica: Telefónica is a Spanish telecom company active in Europe, Asia, North, Central and South America. Since 2011, the MNO has divested over 11,000 towers across the region and has since created its infrastructure arm, Telxius in 2016. After a tentative IPO in 2016, Telefónica has finally transferred 40% of its stake in Telxius to private equity firm KKR.
In 2019, the MNO has divested its Central American operations to América Móvil (El Salvador and Guatemala) and Millicom (Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua).
Telesites: Telesites is the infrastructure company created by Carlos Slim which debuted on the Mexican stock exchange in December 2015. As of Q1 2018 the company owns and manages 15,066 towers in Mexico as a result of the transfer of assets from América Móvil as well as organic growth. Additionally, Telesites is active in Costa Rica where it has built 268 sites for Claro as of Q1 2018, and has started operations in Colombia.
Telxius: Telxius was created in February 2016 by Telefónica with the goal to manage the operator’s infrastructure including its towers and sub-sea cable. To date, Telxius manages over 13,350 sites in Europe, 1,655 in Brazil, 304 in Argentina, 327 in Chile and 849 in Peru. In addition, the company runs 31,000km of submarine fibre optic cable, including SAM-1, a submarine cable that connects the United States with Central and South America.
After a tentative IPO in 2016, Telefónica has finally transferred 40% of its stake in Telxius to private equity firm KKR.
Tillman Global Holdings (TGH): Multinational tower and infrastructure investment and operations firm led by Sanjiv Ahuja, former Chairman and co-founder of Eaton Towers and ex-CEO of Orange. TGH has a joint venture partnership with JC Decaux, giving them the opportunity locate points of service, particularly small cells, on over 1mn prime locations worldwide. TGH is pursuing a couple of key opportunities in CALA.
TIM Brasil: Owned by Telecom Italia, TIM Brasil is the second mobile network operator in Brazil, serving more than 70mn subscribers across the country. In 2014, TIM entered into a sale and leaseback transaction with American Tower for the sale of the majority of its sites in various tranches. The deal was finalised in 2017 with a total of 5,873 sites transferred for a total value of US$850mn.
TOCSA Towers: TOCSA Towers is a BTS firm active in Central America.
Torrecom: Torrecom is a leading BTS firm with a portfolio of over 880 towers across Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico and Panama. The firm is now expanding into the Andean region. Its management team includes experienced executives from U.S. towerco MCM, Inc. such as Maria Scotti who acts as CEO and Eric Zachs, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of MCM. Indigo Capital is one of the investment firms behind Torrecom.
Torres Andinas: Torres Andinas was a BTS firm active in Colombia and Peru. The firm stopped operating in the region following the sale of its assets to SBA Communications in 2017.
Torres Unidas: Torres Unidas operated 1,644 sites across Chile, Colombia and Peru before its acquisition by Andean Tower Partners in 2017. Led by Daniel Seiner, who is now CEO of ATP Torres Unidas, the towerco was backed by Berkshire Partners.
Tower One: Tower One was launched in 2015 and is a towerco listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange. The company has operations across multiple international markets including Canada, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico.
Uniti Towers: a Latin American towerco, subsidiary of CS&L, a U.S. based REIT, Uniti Towers sold its assets to Phoenix Tower International in February 2019 and closed its regional operations. The US$100mn transaction included approximately 500 towers across Mexico, Colombia and Nicaragua.
WOM: WOM is the fourth mobile network operator in Chile where it’s been offering 4G LTE since the end of 2015.
Vinson & Elkins (V&E): V&E is one of the oldest and largest international law firms, with approximately 700 lawyers located in 15 offices around the world. Their global telecommunications team has extensive experience advising on international telecoms and telecoms infrastructure transactions in numerous countries.
Viva Bolivia: Viva is the third mobile network operator in Bolivia and is owned by Trilogy International Partners. Viva launched its 4G LTE services in July 2015. In February 2019, Phoenix Tower International announced a sale and leaseback with Trilogy for 600 towers in Bolivia.
Viva Dominicana: Viva Dominicana is the third mobile network operator in the Dominican Republic where it offers 3G services. In March 2016, the MNO sealed a deal with Phoenix Tower International over the sale of 145 sites and transfer of marketing rights of a further 400 towers. In November 2015, Trilogy International Partners sold Viva Dominicana to Telemicro Group, owned by local entrepreneur Juan Ramon Gomez Diaz.
Who have we missed?
Have we missed a company active in the CALA telecom tower market? Then please email Arianna Neri, MD - Americas and Asia, at aneri@towerxchange.com and don’t forget to sign up for the sixth TowerXchange Meetup Americas, taking place in Boca Raton, 9-10 July. More details can be found here.
