Baltic telecom operator Bitė has sold its tower business in Lithuania and Latvia to real assets manager Stonepeak.
Bitė, owned by Providence Equity Partners, is selling TeleTower and its portfolio of over 2,500 tower and rooftop sites for an unspecified sum.
Following the transaction, TeleTower and Bitė will enter into a commercial agreement including commitments to roll out more than 1,200 additional sites to increase network density.
Nicolò Zanotto, managing director and head of digital infrastructure, Europe at Stonepeak, said: “Lithuania and Latvia represent attractive, nascent tower markets given the sustained high levels of mobile data usage and competitive landscape between mobile network operators within the region.
“We believe TeleTower is poised for success given its diversified portfolio, state-of-the-art infrastructure, and first mover advantage as the region’s first independent tower company. We are excited to back TeleTower and look forward to working closely with Bitė to support furthering their strategic objectives in both Lithuania and Latvia.”
Pranas Kuisys, the CEO at Bitė, said: “At every stage of our development, we have aimed to deliver maximum value to our customers while enhancing mobile and fixed connectivity, as well as broadening our offering with Pay TV services.
“Since we first partnered with Providence, we have invested more than €400m in our infrastructure to achieve this goal by building out 4G and 5G networks and delivering high-speed connectivity. Welcoming investment from a global strategic investor such as Stonepeak, combined with our future strategic partnership with TeleTower, reflects our continued commitment to these objectives.”
Karim Tabet, senior managing director and head of Europe at Providence, said: “Connectivity is a core investment theme for Providence. We are proud to have supported Bitė’s development into a leading player in the Baltic telecoms sector, growing revenues from approximately €200m to €600m under our ownership through new services such as Go3.
“We continue to believe the Baltics benefit from strong fundamentals and we look forward to working with Stonepeak to bring their infrastructure expertise to this strategic partnership, adding significant value to both Bitė and TeleTower.”
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