American Tower is increasing its presence in Brazil and Mexico via an $811 million infrastructure acquisition. NII Holdings, which operates as Nextel in Latin America, is selling America Tower 2,790 towers in Brazil for $413 million and 1,666 towers in Mexico for $398 million.
Nextel then plans for its Brazilian and Mexican units to lease the infrastructure back from America Tower, with the initial lease terms set at a minimum of 12 years. The revenue from the deal will help NII improve its liquidity position while also providing funding for 4G/LTE networks in Brazil and Mexico.
Steve Shindler, CEO of NII Holdings, described these markets as offering “the best opportunity for value creation and long-term growth and profitability”, adding that the deal would “achieve our goal of unlocking the value of a significant portion of our tower assets while raising additional liquidity.”
American Tower believes that the infrastructure will bring in around $149 million in annual run rate revenue. CEO Jim Taiclet commented: “Through this acquisition, American Tower will gain significant incremental scale in our Mexican and Brazilian operations, and we anticipate leveraging the strong demand backdrop in both markets to drive meaningful revenue and cash flow growth for many years to come.”
