American Tower To Buy Global Tower Partners For $4.8 Bln - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - American Tower Corp. (AMT) announced Friday that it agreed to acquire 100% of the outstanding common membership interests of MIP Tower Holdings LLC, a private real estate investment trust, which is the parent company of Global Tower Partners or GTP, and related companies, for a total purchase price of about $4.8 billion, subject to customary adjustments.

American Tower expects the purchase price will be satisfied with about $3.3 billion in cash and the assumption of about $1.5 billion of existing indebtedness.

The company expects to use cash on hand and borrowing capacity under its existing revolving credit facilities, as supplemented by additional anticipated sources of debt financing, to satisfy the cash consideration for this acquisition and other previously announced acquisitions.

The company noted that it intends to maintain its financial and capital structure policies, consistent with investment grade credit metrics, and expects to use the quality cash flow and margin characteristics of the GTP portfolio to de-lever over time back to its stated target leverage range.

The Firm expects that in aggregate, in 2014, the portfolio will generate approximately $345 million in revenues and approximately $270 million of gross margin, and is anticipated to be immediately accretive to Adjusted Funds From Operations or "AFFO" upon closing.

Global Tower Partners is majority owned by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners together with minority partners including Dutch pension fund manager PGGM and management. GTP owns and operates approximately 5,400 domestic towers, 800 domestic property interests under third-party communications sites, and has management rights to over 9,000 domestic sites, which are primarily rooftop assets.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2013.