American Tower and Millicom International Cellular
announced that Millicom’s subsidiary, Colombia M0vil has agreed to sell up to
2,126 towers to a to-be-formed Colombian subsidiary of American Tower for
US$182 million in cash.
Through a Millicom subsidiary, Millicom and Colombia
Movil’s other shareholders will have an option to acquire an indirect,
substantial minority equity interest in ATC Infraco.
Further, to support Colombia Movil’s wireless network
and future deployment plans, Colombia Móvil and ATC Infraco will enter into a
long term leasing agreement and build-to-suit agreement, whereby ATC Infraco
will provide Colombia Movil with wireless communications towers.
The transaction is expected to create savings in both
capital and operating expenditures for Colombia Movil.
“This transaction solidifies our first partnership
with Millicom and improves upon our current economies of scale in Colombia,”
said James Taiclet, chairman, president and chief executive officer, American Tower.
As our customers in Colombia continue their focus on
deploying wireless data networks, we believe our collocation model provides
them with significant value through capex savings and time to market
advantages. As a result, we believe this transaction further enhances our
ability to maximize our market opportunity in Colombia,” Taiclet added.
We are pleased to announce our first tower deal in Latin
America. This agreement confirms our commitment to outsourcing passive
infrastructure, and is entirely consistent with our strategy of improving both
our capital and operating efficiency by focusing on our core activities of
sales, marketing, branding, distribution, service innovation and customer care,
and this makes even more sense in a large country such as Colombia,” said
Mikael Grahne, president and chief executive officer of Millicom.
By Telecomlead.com
Team
editor@telecomlead.com
