StratCap is considering selling a US portfolio of over 100 tower assets held by the Strategic Wireless Infrastructure Fund (Fund I) in a bid to cash in on a growing interest in the asset class.
The global alternative investment manager said it has commenced a formal process to explore strategic alternatives for the fund, including the possible sale of its portfolio of cell towers, wireless easements and related assets.
StratCap has appointed Media Capital Advisors to help identify potential buyers for Fund I’s portfolio which includes over a hundred assets with 218 tenant leases and about 50% remaining available tower capacity.
Despite the potential sale, StratCap said it remains optimistic about the sector and continues to acquire and manage digital infrastructure assets across various platforms and verticals throughout its organisation. StratCap expects to continue to expand its footprint in the digital infrastructure sector, the company added.
“We believe that this is an opportune time to explore alternatives to enhance value for Fund I’s investors,” said Jim Condon, a managing partner at StratCap.
Todd Rowley, who manages Fund I and leads StratCap’s Wireless Infrastructure, said: “We’ve assembled a robust, diverse portfolio of mission-critical digital infrastructure assets that we believe will generate significant buyer interest in the marketplace.”
The potential sale of the StratCap fund’s portfolio comes at a time when the digital infrastructure sector which has been experiencing a flurry of transactions in the data centre space is now also recording some major tower deals in the US and elsewhere.
In Europe for instance, a major transaction announced late last year involves a consortium comprising Global Infrastructure Partners, KKR core infrastructure funds, Tower Bridge Infrastructure Partners and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia acquiring Vantage Towers in a co-control partnership with Vodafone in a €16bn deal.
Brookfield and DigitalBridge bought a 51% stake in Deutsche Telekom’s €17.5bn mobile telecommunications tower business. And again in Europe, DigitalBridge agreed to buy the mobile telecommunications tower business of Belgian broadband services firm Telenet in a €745m deal.
In Asia, KKR-backed Frontier Towers acquired PHp45bn (€759m) worth of mobile telecommunications towers in the Philippines from Globe Telecom.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board announced that it was acquiring a 70% interest in Spark New Zealand’s mobile towers business for NZ$900m (€548.5m).
OMERS Infrastructure made two sizeable deals in Australia. It first acquired the tower assets of Australian firm TPG Telecom for A$950m in its first Asia-Pacific digital infrastructure play, and within a month agreed to buy Stilmark, a developer, owner and operator of mobile tower assets.
In the US, Harmoni Towers also agreed to buy Parallel Infrastructure from Apollo’s second infrastructure fund.
Blackstone Infrastructure Partners also bought a stake in Phoenix Tower. Founded in 2013, PTI operates over 14,000 towers across 18 countries including the US, across Latin America, and France.
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