Digital infrastructure, with its real estate model characterised by long-term contracts, fixed escalators and high margins continues to attract a broad base of investors seeking superior low risk returns.
Over the years there has been an evolution in the types of investors in towercos, with venture capital and private equity, in many cases, giving way to infrastructure funds and pension funds as valuations continue to rise and the model continues to mature.
With high levels of M&A across much of the sector, TowerXchange has compiled an A to Z guide of the top current and prospective investors in the world’s 300+ towercos, detailing their investments or interests in the market to date.
A
ABP Investments: Dutch pension fund ABP acquired 75% of Dutch towerco, Open Tower Company in 2017.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority: Sovereign wealth fund owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADIA is an investor in EdgePoint Infrastructure and was an investor in Axicom, prior to its acquisition by Australia Tower Network.
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.
Acwa Group: Saudi conglomerate with an interest in towers. Joined forces with TASC Towers in their bid to acquire Zain’s Saudi Arabian sites, although the deal fell through.
Adenia Partners: Adenia Partners is a private equity firm focussed on the African continent. Investor in Eastcastle Infrastructure.
African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM): Joint venture between Macquarie and Old Mutual Former investor in IHS Towers. Current investor in Eastcastle Infrastructure.
Africinvest: Tunisian headquartered private equity firm focussed on the African continent and rumoured to have an appetite for towers in the North African region
AIMCo: One of Canada’s largest and most diversified institutional investment managers. AIMCo operates at arms-length from the Government of Alberta and invests globally on behalf of 32 pension, endowment, and government funds in the Province of Alberta.
Alba Capital Partners: An Argentinian middle-market private equity firm investing in telecom infrastructure firms in Argentina and Uruguay. Its portfolio includes Buenos Aires based BTS tower company A1 Torres, along with a telecom site engineering firm Sidaco Telecomunicaciones SA
Al Rahji Group: Saudi based investor which was linked with 2016 Mobily tower sale process (which was subsequently cancelled)
Al Zamil Group: Middle Eastern investor who was linked with previous tower sale processes in Saudi Arabia
Albright Capital Management (ACM): A private equity firm specialised in emerging markets. Albright Capital Management is a current investor in Helios Towers as well as Argentinian towerco, Torresec. .
Alcazar Capital: Private equity firm which was an investor in Myanmar towerco, Irrawaddy Green Towers and Vietnamese towerco, Golden Towers.
Alecta: Swedish pension fund which owns a stake in Telia’s tower businesses in Norway, Finland and Sweden
Allianz Capital Partners: Asset Manager with a focus on private equity, infrastructure and renewable energy. Allianz Capital Partners acquired a 10% stake in American Tower’s European business, ATC Europe, in June 2021.
AMP Capital: AMP is a global investment manager headquartered in Australia which had a number of investments in the digital infrastructure space. In 2023, DigitalBridge acquired AMP Capital’s global infrastructure equity investment management business, which has been rebranded to InfraBridge. AMP Capital formerly owned Irish towerco, Towercom (which they sold in 2022) and Spanish broadcast and telecoms towerco, Axion (which they sold in 2021). AMP had also been linked to Finnish towerco, Digita, prior to the towerco being acquired by DigitalBridge. In late 2020, AMP announced a US$130mn syndicated loan facility with Australian towerco, Stilmark. The company has also invested in lease aggregator, Telecom Infrastructure Partners.
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. In 1997, they built and operated Amnet, Central America’s largest cable television/triple play company, which was sold to Millicom in 2008. Former investments in the tower space include NMS (which operated in Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua) and Teltower Dominica (active in the Dominican Republic). Amzak counts BTS Towers among its current investments.
Antin Infrastructure Partners: Antin is a private equity firm focussed on infrastructure investments. Antin sold French towerco FPS to American Tower in 2016 and Spanish towerco Axion to AMP Capital in 2017. Antin have investments in the fibre and data centre space in Europe and are believed to retain an appetite for further opportunities in towers.
APG Asset Management: Dutch pension investment company which is a subsidiary of ABP, the largest pension fund in the Netherlands. APG forms part of the consortium which owns French broadcast towerco, TDF. Whilst Brookfield has decided to divest its stake in TDF, APG plans to continue its investment.
Apollo Global Management: Asset manager whose Apollo Infrastructure Opportunities Fund II (AIOF II) targets mid-market infrastructure assets in the communications, power and transport sectors. AIOF II’s investments in the digital infrastructure space included US towerco, Parallel Infrastructure prior to its sale to Harmoni Towers in 2022.
Arcus Infrastructure Partners: Infrastructure fund manager focussed on the European market. Arcus forms part of the consortium, led by Brookfield, which owns French towerco TDF. In 2016, Arcus sold UK-based towerco, Shere Group, to Cellnex for €393mn. The investor was also linked to a consortium interested in buying Arqiva prior to Arqiva reaching a deal with Cellnex for the sale of their telecoms division.
Ardian: Private investment house which recently reached a deal to acquire 100% of Míla, the infrastructure arm of incumbent Icelandic operator, Síminn. Ardian also currently leads an investment consortium which owns a 90% stake of Daphne 3, a holding company which in turn owns 29.9% of Italian towerco INWIT. In early 2023, news emerged that Ardian was working on a potential offer to take Ardian private.
ASMA Capital: Bahrain headquartered Infrastructure fund managers with a known interest in the tower asset class
Astatine Investment Partners: Private equity firm (formerly Alinda Capital Partners) focussed on mid-market infrastructure investments. Owned Polish broadcast and telecoms towerco Emitel prior to its sale to Cordiant Digital Infrastructure.
Asterion Industrial Partners (AIP): Investment firm focussed on the European mid-market infrastructure space. AIP owns Spanish towerco, Axion.
Australian Retirement Trust: Australia’s largest superannuation fund formed through the merger of Sunsuper and QSuper. Sunsuper acquired a 70% stake in Optus’ tower portfolio in Australia. The towerco (originally called Australian Tower Network but rebranded to Indara) subsequently acquired Australian independent towerco, Axicom in March 2022. Sunsuper was also part of the consortium which acquired a 49% stake in Telstra towerco, Amplitel. The pension fund also has a keen interest in the data centre space and counts European and US focussed data centre company, Vantage Data Centers (which is majority owned by DigitalBridge) amongst its investments
B
Basalt Infrastructure Partners: Transatlantic infrastructure investment firm which owns US towerco, Skyway
Berkshire Partners: Berkshire Partners was an early stage investor in Crown Castle and was also the investment arm behind Torres Unidas until its acquisition by Andean Tower Partners. Up until 2022, Berkshire Partners was an investor in Indonesian towerco, Protelindo.
BlackRock: The world's largest asset manager, with US$9.42tn in assets under management as of 2023. Digital infrastructure is a key asset class in BlackRock’s investment portfolio and the company is reportedly eyeing up an investment in Phoenix Tower International
Blackstone: One of the world’s largest asset managers and a serial towerco investor which is currently invested in Phoenix Tower International
Blackwells Capital: Public securities investor which owns a stake in IHS Towers
Blu Stone Management: Former investor in Irrawaddy Green Towers.
Brookfield: Major infrastructure investor whose investments in towers include Wireless Infrastructure Group (UK & Ireland), Telia Towers (Norway, Finland and Sweden), TDF (France), GD Towers (Germany & Austria) and Summit Digitel (India).
C
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ): Global investment group managing funds for public retirement and insurance plans. CDPQ acquired a 30% stake in ATC Europe in May 2021 and is also an investor in US based towerco, Vertical Bridge. The company also owns a stake in a FiBrasil, a wholesale fibre network in Brazil. Provided additional funding for PTI’s acquisition of WOM’s tower portfolio in Chile in 2022. The company has been linked to the sale of American Tower’s Indian business as well as Vodafone’s stake in Indus Towers
CalPERS: The California Public Employees' Retirement System is an agency in the California executive branch that manages pension and health benefits for more than 1.5 million California public employees, retirees, and their families
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB)/ CPP Investments: Pension fund which manages the pensions of over 21 million Canadians. Their telecoms infrastructure portfolio includes BAI Communications and a minority shareholding in Cellnex. The company is also a former investor in Indian towerco, Bharti Infratel as well as UK broadcast towerco, Arqiva.
Canson Capital Partners: Investment firm which owns a 3% stake in Italian towerco, INWIT
Capital Group Private Markets: Private equity fund focussed on emerging markets with a diverse portfolio. Major shareholder in Eaton Towers, prior to Eaton’s acquisition by American Tower.
Carlyle Group: Investment firm with over US$376bn in assets under management. In the tower space, Carlyle Group is an investor in US build to suit towerco, Tillman Infrastructure. Carlyle also owned Indonesian towerco, PT Solusi Tunas Pratama TBK (STP), prior to its sale to Protelindo.
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$3bn in committed capital. Cartesian is a current investor in Brazilian towerco, BTS Towers and was the founding investor of NMS (which was sold to Uniti Towers). Cartesian Capital was also a minority investor in Grupo TorreSur.
CDC Group: The UK’s development finance institution and impact investor
Communications Infrastructure Fund: Dutch investment fund with long-term investments in telecommunication infrastructure including antenna sites, cable and optical fibre infrastructure, data centres and related assets. The fund owned 75% of Open Tower Company with NOVEC until late 2017.
Convergence Partners: Firm focussed on early-stage investments in the African TMT sector. Had looked at an investment in the tower industry a few years ago.
Cordiant Digital Infrastructure: Investor with a focus on digital infrastructure assets in Europe and North America whose telecom infrastructure team is led by the former President of American Tower. In 2021, Cordiant reached a deal to acquire Czech broadcast towerco České Radiokomunikace from Macquarie. In early 2022, Cordiant reached a deal to acquire Polish telecom and broadcast towerco, Emitel, from Alinda Capital Partners.
Credit Agricole Assurances: Insurance firm which owns a 10% stake in French infraco, TDF
CVC Capital Partners: CVC is a private equity firm which invested in Abertis (subsequently carving out Cellnex via IPO in 2015) from 2010 to 2015 and has since been linked to several other telecoms infrastructure sales in Europe, including bidding for a stake in Telefónica’s Telxius. CVC Capital reached a deal to acquire Myanmar towerco, Irrawaddy Green Towers, in late 2020 but subsquently tried to pull out of the deal. Back in March 2023, the firm submitted a bid for pan-Asian towerco, edotco. In 2023, CVC reached a deal to acquire a majority stake in DIF Capital Partners
D
Dawood Hercules Corporation (DH Corp): Listed Pakistani investment conglomerate with a US$600mn market cap. Took a 45% stake in edotco Pakistan prior to the (now cancelled) deal to acquire 13,000 towers from Jazz. Dawoord Hercules now owns Pakistani towerco, Engro Enfrashare.
Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners: Investment firm spun out of Detusche Telekom with an interest in the European digital infrastructure asset class. DTCP has a stake in Cellnex Netherlands as well as fibrecos, Open Dutch Fibre and Community Fiber and data centre company, maincubes. DTCP was part of the Cellnex-led investment consortium that bought Sunrise’s towers in Swizerland, although Cellnex has since acquired DTCP’s stake.
Development Partners International: Private equity fund focussed on Africa which had money at work in Eaton Towers prior to their sale to American Tower.
DEG: Germany's development finance institution.
DFC: US International Development Finance Corporation is America’s development bank, partnering with the private sector to finance solutions in the developing world. The DFC was formed following the merger of Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) with the Development Credit Authority of the United States Agency for International Development. OPIC 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. In 2019 they approved a $US26mn allocation to support BTS Towers’ expansion across Peru and Ecuador.
DIF: The Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund, formerly known as TRUEGIF or TRUEIF, is a towerco solution created by Thai MNO True. It is Thailand’s first telecommunication infrastructure fund which invests in telecommunication infrastructure assets such as telecommunication towers, fibre optic cable systems, transmission equipment, broadband systems and/or revenue incurred from the assets.
Digital 9 Infrastructure: Investment trust managed by Triple Point. The trust has invested over £600mn in digital infrastructure since their IPO and recently reached a deal to acquire CPPIB’s stake in broadcast towerco Arqiva (whose telecoms division ha previously been acquired by Cellnex).
DigitalBridge: DigitalBridge is a leading global digital infrastructure REIT with investments spanning the digital ecosystem including towers, data centres, fibre, small cells, and edge infrastructure. DigitalBridge’s investments in the tower space include Vertical Bridge (US), Mexico Tower Partners (Mexico), Andean Telecom Partners (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru), EdgePoint Infrastructure (Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines), Digita (Finland), ÍslandsTurnar (Iceland), Belgium Tower Partners (Belgium), GD Towers (Germany and Austria) and digital infraco Freshwave (UK and Germany). The company fomerly was an investor in Vantage Towers.
E
Edizione: One of Europe’s main holding companies and owned by the Benetton family. Edizione is an investor in European towerco, Cellnex.
Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF): The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund is managed by Ninety One. EAIF is part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group, which is a multi-donor organisation with members from seven countries and the World Bank Group. Has an interest in the towerco and telecom ESCO space.
Emerging Capital Partners: Private equity fund focussed on the African market who are investors in multi-national towerco, IHS Towers.
EQT: Swedish private equity fund. In 2023, EQT (via its Active Core Infrastructure Fund) invested in Radius Global Infrastructure, which operates as AP Wireless, a lease aggregator that has also transitioned into tower ownership. The company has various other investments in the digital infrastructure space including Zayo, Delta Fiber (Netherlands) EdgeConneX (USA), Fiberklaar (Belgium), GlobalConnect (Sweden), Melita (Malta) and Segra (USA).
Ethos Private Equity: Private equity firm focussed in Sub-Saharan Africa which had money at work in Eaton Towers prior to the towerco being sold to American Tower.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development: The EBRD is owned by 66 countries from five continents. Founded in 1991, they have invested in countries across Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the MENA region. Their former investments in the telecom space include towerco, Russian Towers.
F
F2i: Infrastructure investor primarily focussed on the Italian market. F2i owns a 60% stake in Italian broadcast towerco, EI Towers. F2i was rumored to have bid for WIND’s towers ultimately acquired by Cellnex, and also submitted a joint bid with Cellnex for the 45% stake in INWIT (prior to the sale being pulled).
First Sentier Investors: Formerly known as First State Investments, First Sentier Investors is an Australian asset manager with assets all over the world. The company was an investor in Finnish broadcast towerco Digita, prior to the towerco being sold to DigitalBridge.
FMO: Dutch development bank which is 51% government owned and 49% owned by commercial banks and financial institutions. FMO is a former investor in IHS Towers
Future Fund: Australian sovereign wealth fund which was part of the investment consortium that bought a 49% stake in Telstra’s tower business, Amplitel.
G
Gávea Investimentos: Brazilian asset management firm, 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 towerco, Cell Site Solutions (CCS) back in 2013 in a joint US$300mn investment with Goldman Sachs and sold its shares to the latter in 2016 (CCS has subsequently been acquired by IHS Towers).
GIC: A leading global investment firm which firm manages Singapore’s foreign reserves through investments in over 40 countries. In the tower space, GIC is an investor in IHS Towers, Summit Digitel and CETIN. GIC has made various investments in the data centre space, forming joint ventures with Equinix to roll out data centres under their xScale brand
GLIL Infrastructure: Investor in UK infrastructure which has reached a deal to acquire a minority stake in UK joint venture towerco Cornerstone from Virgin Media O2
Global Infrastructure Partners: US headquartered, independent infrastructure fund manager which owns a stake (alongside KKR) in pan-European towerco, Vantage Towers as well as Indian towerco, Ascend Telecom. The firm is also an investor in CyrusOne, a global hyperscale data center platform with a portfolio of over 50 operating data centers located in key digital gateway markets primarily across the U.S. and Europe.
Goldman Sachs: Global investment firm whose investments in telecom towers include IHS Towers, Golden Comunicaciones (a BTS firm focused on the Colombian and Costa Rican markets in which it coinvests with Innova Capital Partners) and Continental (in which it is a minority investor). Goldman Sachs also invested in CSS alongside Gávea Investimentos, prior to the towerco’s acquisition by IHS and was also an investor in US towerco, Vertical Bridge.
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.
Grain Management: Private equity firm that invests in digital infrastructure and spectrum. In the US, Grain’s Tower Investments I owns a portfolio of 150 towers and related assets, whilst Tower Investments II owns around 400 towers and related assets. The company has numerous investments in the fibre space. As of late 2023, Grain management is part of a consortium alongside Blackrock which is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire a 20% stake in Phoenix Tower International
H
Helios Investment Partners: Investment firm making private equity investments in Africa, with a primary focus on the sub-Saharan region. Helios’ portfolio companies operate in 35 African countries across a range of industry sectors, with telecom infrastructure and services playing an important part. Founder investors in Helios Towers (having since exited their investment following Helios’ IPO) and previous investors in HTN Towers (prior to the towerco’s sale to IHS).
Horizon Equity Partners: Investment firm focussed on Portuguese infrastructure. Horizon Equity Partners formed part of a consortium which owned 75% of Altice’s Portuguese tower carve out, OMTEL, prior to OMTEL being sold to Cellnex.
Housatonic Partners: Housatonic Partners is a U.S. private equity firm with over US$1bn in capital under management. Mexican towerco, QMC Telecom is among its investments in the telecom infrastructure sector.
I
IDB Invest: The private sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank.
IFM Investors: Australian fund manager IFM investors has a portfolio of several infrastructure assets in Europe, North America and Australia. IFM has a stake in broadcast towerco Arqiva although Arqiva’s telecoms business has been sold to Cellnex. The company is also an investor in German fiberco, GlasfaserPlus (a JV with Deutsche Telekom) and North American data centre company, Switch.
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.
InfraBridge: Part of the DigitalBridge group of companies since DigitalBridge acquired AMP Capital’s global infrastructure equity investment management business. The company targets mi-market infrastructure assets, typically investing US$100-500mn in equity
InfraVia Capital Partners: Infrastructure investor InfraVia owned Irish towerco Cignal, prior to Cellnex acquiring the towerco. InfraVia acquired Altice’s data centre assets and has multiple investments in the fibre space. InfraVia was linked to the sale of Finnish towerco, Digita (which was ultimately acquired by DigitalBridge).
Innova Capital Partners: Innova is a global investor focused on energy and infrastructure projects and the investing arm behind Golden Comunicaciones (Colombia & Costa Rican towerco), via a joint venture with Goldman Sachs. Also acting as an ESCO in Colombia.
Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ): Japanese state-backed private equity firm which is an investor in pan-Asian towerco, edotco. INCJ was also an investor in Japanese in-building solution provider, JTower.
Inter-American Development Bank: The largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean.
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. The IFC is a current investor in BTS Towers and Eastcastle Infrastructure and a former investor IHS and has also been involved in various debt financing projects across the sector.
I Squared Capital: independent global infrastructure investment manager focusing on energy, utilities, telecom and transport in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The company is reportedly in talks to acquire a majority stake in American Tower’s Indian operations and was previously linked with an bid for edotco. The company owns edge data centre platform, nLighten and terrestrial fibre and subsea player Exa Infrastructure
J
John Hancock: A division of Manulife Financial Corporation (see Manulife)
John Laing Group: Infrastructure investor which acquired Irish towerco, Towercom from Infrabridge (the infrastructure manager of the Irish Infrastructure Fund) in 2023
K
Khazanah Nasional Berhad: The strategic investment fund of the Government of Malaysia. Khazanah holds and manages selected commercial assets of the Government and undertakes strategic investments on behalf of the nation. It is involved in sectors such as power, telecommunications, finance, healthcare, aviation, infrastructure, leisure and tourism, and property. In December 2016 the fund invested US$200mn in exchange for a 10.7% stake in edotco.
Kismet Capital Group: Russian investment firm owned by former MegaFon CEO, Ivan Tavrin. Kismet Capital secured a controlling shareholding in Russian towerco, Vertical in 2019. In 2021, Kismet Capital formed a new towerco venture combining the assets of MegaFon and Vertical into “New Towers” with Kismet Capital securing a 65% stake in the venture. Kismet Capital owned New Towers has since acquired Russian Towers.
KKR: Investment firm KKR manages multiple asset classes including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit and, through its strategic partners, hedge funds. Current towerco investments include Vantage Towers in Europe, a minority stake in Indus Towers in India and Pinnacle Towers in the Philippines. Global towerco investments which KKR has exited include Telxius and Hivory.
Korea Investment Corporation (KIC): Korean sovereign wealth fund. Investor in IHS Towers
Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP): Malaysia’s largest public service pension fund which is an investor in pan-Asian towerco, edotco.
M
M&G Investments: Global investment manager whose European infrastructure division, Infracapital, was an investor in Dutch broadcast towerco, Alticom, prior to Alticom’s sale to Cellnex. M&G/ Infracapital continue to have a keen interest on the digital infrastructure asset class and counts multiple investments in fibrecos amongst its portfolio companies.
M1 Group: Lebanese investment firm which is locked in a legal battle regarding the sale of its stake in Irrawaddy Green Towers. M1 Group also acquired Telenor’s Myanmar operations.
Macquarie: Macquarie has an extensive tower portfolio around the world including PhilTower Consortium, (Philippines), Mexico Tower Partners (Mexico), Towercom (Slovakia), Tower Bersama (Indonesia) and UK broadcast towerco, Arqiva (whose telecoms division has been sold to Cellnex). Former towerco investments include Viom Networks and ATC India (India), Ceské Radiokomunikace (Czech Republic), Russian Towers (Russia) and Axicom (Australia).
Madison Dearborn Partners: MDP is the U.S. based private equity firm behind BTS firm Centennial Towers. Centennial’s Brazilian and Colombian operations were acquired by IHS Towers although their Mexican operations were excluded. MDP has a large number of other investments in the TMT space.
Maple-Brown Abbott: Boutique fund manager which invests in listed infrastructure companies and has a strong appetite for the tower asset class.
Manulife Investment Management: The global brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. Manulife was an investor in Phoenix Tower International prior to selling its stake to Blackstone. In the US Manulife generally operates under the John Hancock brand
MC Partners: Private equity firm focused on small and mid-sized businesses in the digital infrastructure and technology services sector. Investor in US towerco, TowerCom.
Metier: Investor in rural solutions. Led a US$36mn consortium to an equity investment into Africa Mobile Networks.
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.
Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners: Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners formed part of a consortium (with Horizon Equity Partners) which bought a 75% of Altice’s Portuguese carve out towerco, OMTEL. The consortium has since sold their investment to Cellnex, acquiring Altice’s FTTH business at the same time.
Morrison & Co: Asset manager managing the investment consortium which bought a 49% stake in Telstra’s towerco business, Amplitel.
Mubadala: Abu Dhabi’s leading investment company which is active in 13 sectors and more than 30 countries around the world. Known interest in the digital infrastructure asset class, having recently invested in an Asian data centre company
Myanmar Investments: The first Myanmar-focused investment company to be admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. MIL was established in 2013 and was an investor in Apollo Towers and now AP Towers following Apollo’s merger with PAMEL. Following the political turmoil in Myanmar, Myanmar Investments seeks to realise its investments before winding up
N
New Silk Route: Private equity firm that invests in private companies in India, Asia, and the Middle East. Its investments in the telecommunications infrastructure industry included Ascend Telecom in India.
Norfund: Norwegian development finance institution which is an Investor in the Sagemcom-led ESCO ESCOTEL in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
O
Oman 70 Holding: Shareholder in Oman Towers Company.
OMERS: Canadian pension fund. In the tower space, OMERS acquired TPG Telecom’s tower portfolio and Stilmark to form a new Australian towerco, WaveConn. OMERS had previously bid for the Optus tower portfolio (coming second to AustralianSuper). OMERS has further investments in digital infrastructure including Deutsche Glasfaser/inexio in Germany, and XP Fibre in France as well as a minority investment in DigitalBridge’s Beanfield and has stated its appetite to expand its investments further.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan: Canadian pension fund which acquired a 70% interest in Spark New Zealand’s tower business, Connexa. The investor had been linked to the Optus tower sale in Australia.
P
Pátria Investments: Pátria is a leading private equity firm active in Brazil in a variety of sectors including infrastructure. In 2012, Pátria invested in Highline do Brasil (exiting its investment with a sale to Digital Colony - now DigitalBridge - in 2019) and in 2015 in Odata, a data centre infrastructure and co-location service company. Patria’s investments in the sector also include ATIS Group, an independent towerco active in Argentina, and Winity – a BTS towerco in Brazil.
Palistar Capital: Alternative asset manager (formerly Melody Investment Advisors) focused on private equity and structured investments in communications infrastructure. Palistar Capital owns US towercos CTI Towers and Harmoni Towers as well as lease aggregator, Symphony Wireless.
Patria Investments: An investment firm with $23.8bn in assets under management (AUM), across private equity, infrastructure, credit, public equities, and real estate. Within digital infrastructure, Patria Investments has invested into a Brazilian tower company Winity Telecom (founded in 2020), Latin American data centre company ODATA (90%-owned by Patria and 10%-owned by CyrusOne), an Argentinian tower company ATIS Group (Argentina Telecom Infrastructure Solutions). It sold its tower company Highline do Brasil to DigitalBridge in December 2019, and its Brazilian B2B fibre provider Vogel Telecom to Algar Telecom in August 2021.
Partners Group: Leading global private markets firm which invested alongside Aboitiz Infracapital in Filipino towerco, Unity Digital Infrastructure. The company also has investments in the data centre space.
Peppertree Capital Management, Inc: A private equity firm focused on making investments in growing communication infrastructure companies, Peppertree has more than US$4.75bn under management and has made more than 115 investments in communication infrastructure companies in 12 countries. In addition to sponsoring tower, DAS, data center and communication rooftop developers, fiber network operators and spectrum auction participants, Peppertree seeks investments in real estate related to its areas of focus, non-telecom infrastructure projects and other businesses and assets with contractually recurring revenue. Peppertree’s investments in the towerco space include TowerCo (USA), Octagon Towers (USA), Blue Sky Towers (USA), Everest Infrastructure (US, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal) and iSON Towers (Philippines).
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.
PGGM: Dutch pension fund PGGM created a joint venture, ‘ATC Europe’ with American Tower in 2016. Following CDPQ and Allianz Capital Partners’ investment in ATC Europe (after the Telxius deal), PGGM’s shareholding has been reorganised to a shareholding in ATC’s French and German opcos. PGGM was also a former investor in Australian towerco, Axicom and has money at work in fibreco Eurofiber. Expect PGGM to be linked to other major tower transactions in the digital infrastructure space.
Proparco: The private sector arm of the French Development Agency which is an investor in ESCOs and rural connectivity.
Providence Equity: Communications and media investment specialists whose towerco investments on a global stage have included Indus Towers (India), Grupo Torresur (Brazil) and KIN (Indonesia). Providence also has investments in a number of mobile network operators.
Provident Capital Partners: Investors in Indonesian Tower Bersama and Chinese towerco, United Towers.
PSP Investments: Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) is a Canadian investment manager. PSP is an investor in Indonesian towerco, Tower Bersama and is also part of an investment consortium owning French towerco TDF (although is exploring the sale of its stake in the latter). In 2017, PSP also formed part of a consortium with Digital Bridge and TIAA Investments to acquire Vantage Data Centers and in 2023 acquired lease aggregator Radius Global Infrastructure
Q
Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC): Australian government owned investment company which is an investor in Filipino towerco, Pinnacle Towers and is a former investor in Indian towerco, Indus Towers. QIC had been linked to the Optus tower sale in Australia.
R
RIT Capital Partners: Chaired by Lord Rothschild, RIT Capital Partners is an investment trust, listed on the London Stock Exchange with a widely diversified portfolio, including an investment in Helios Towers.
S
Sanabil: Saudi Arabian investor, which although wholly owned by the government’s Public Investment Fund, operates as an independent investment institution. Understood to have an interest in towers.
Saratoga Group: Indonesian investment firm with money at work in Tower Bersama
SCB Asset Management: Fund manager of the Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund, a towerco solution created by Thai MNO True.
Schroders: Global investment manager focussed on private and public markets with a proven appetite for the digital infrastructure asset class.
Sculptor Real Estate: Investment firm which makes investments in real estate and real estate related assets across North America and Europe. They have invested in over US$14.6bn of real estate assets across 25 different real estate-related asset classes. In the digital infrastructure space, Sculptor is an investor in US based towerco, Diamond Communications.
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.
Soros: Quantum Strategic Partners (QSP) is a private investment vehicle, managed by Soros Fund Management LLC. QSP focuses globally on investments in several strategies, including capital-intensive start-ups, buyouts, and growth equity transactions.
Southern Capital: Investor in Indonesian towerco, STP alongside Carlyle Group, prior to STP’s acquisition by Protelindo.
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 investments in the telecom infrastructure industry.
SREI Infrastructure Finance: SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited is a leading infrastructure financing conglomerate in India, and one of the first companies to lay the groundwork for telecoms infrastructure sharing. Prior to the sale to American Tower, SREI was the managing shareholder in Viom Networks, and merged with associate company Quippo in 2010.
STAR Capital: Private equity firm focussed on western Europe which invested in lease aggregator, TASC Infrastructure in 2022. STAR Capital has also had investments in the data centre space, selling Datacenter One to AtlasEdge in 2022
Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners: Infrastructure focussed private equity firm which was a former investor Vertical Bridge. Stonepeak acquired over 2,000 towers from Globe in the Philippines via its joint venture MIDC and in 2023 reached a deal to acquire a 49% stake in Cellnex’ subsidiaries in Denmark and Sweden. Stonepeak was also linked to the GD Towers sale in Germany and Austria, the TDF tower sale in France, and the Optus and Telstra tower sales in Australia. The company has further investments in the fibre and data centre space and owns a 36% stake in CoreSite, American Tower’s US data centre business.
Sunsuper: Australian public offer industry superannuation fund which was part of the investment consortium that bought a 49% stake in Telstra’s tower business, Amplitel.
Sunfunder: ESCO investor. Backed Energy Energy Vision in Gabon in 2017 and expanded with CREI in 2019/2020. They have also worked with Orange in DRC. They are planning on providing US$100mn of financing into ESCO/Rural NaaS space in Africa.
Swiss Life Asset Managers: Investment firm which formed part of the Cellnex-led consortium acquiring Sunrise’s towers in Switzerland. The firm also has investments in data centres and towers
T
Temasek: Singapore sovereign wealth fund global
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.
TPG: US private equity firm whose investments count Myanmar towerco, AP Towers.
U
UBS: Multinational investment bank, headquartered in Swtizerland which is a former investor in Australian towerco, Axciom
Unisuper: Former investor in Australian towerco, Axicom
W
Warburg Pincus: Global private equity firm with diverse investments in the TMT and digital infrastructure space
Wendel: Investor in IHS Towers
Wren House Infrastructure: Subsidiary of the Kuwait Investment Authority which is focussed on infrastructure investment. Wren House is an investor in Phoenix Tower International
Who have we missed?
Should you be included on this list, or do you spot a company who is missing? If so, please contact TowerXchange’s Research Director, Laura Graves at lgraves@towerxchange.com to be added to the next update.
