OMERS Infrastructure has acquired the telecommunication tower assets of Australian company TPG Telecom for A$950m in its first Asia-Pacific digital infrastructure play.
The portfolio consists of 428 towers and 809 rooftops, representing approximately 21% of TPG Telecom’s total mobile network footprint in Australia.
As part of the deal, TPG has agreed to an initial 20-year contract to use the tower assets. TPG has also committed to building additional towers to expand the network over the coming years.
Christopher Curtain, senior managing director, Asia-Pacific, for OMERS Infrastructure, said: “Australia and Asia-Pacific more broadly are priority markets for OMERS Infrastructure, where we continue to see significant investment opportunities.”
Curtain said the acquisition boosted OMERS’ portfolio of Australian infrastructure investments, alongside Port of Melbourne, Transgrid and the renewable energy developer, FRV Australia.
TPG Telecom CEO and managing director, Iñaki Berroeta, said the transaction represented competitive long-term financing, which would reduce the group’s total financial leverage and deliver lower borrowing costs.
Berroeta added that the transaction built on a landmark multi-operator core network (MOCN) agreement the firm announced in February of this year to enable regional network sharing with Telstra.
OMERS has completed investments in two other digital infrastructure transactions in Europe over recent years – Deutsche Glasfaser in Germany in 2020, and XP Fibre in France in 2019.
In 2021 and this year, OMERS lost out on the Optus and Axicom mobile towers portfolios. Both sold to AustralianSuper and its partners.
To read the latest edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.
