Russian Towers raising $100 mln from shareholders, new investors
MOSCOW. Feb 29 (Interfax) - Russian telecom towers operator Russian Towers is raising $100 million in a second equity investment round to support the continued expansion of the company's tower portfolio, UFG Asset Management said in a press release.
The company's founding shareholders, UFG Private Equity (via its UFG Private Equity Fund II, L.P.) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have agreed to make a joint investment totaling $15 million in Russian Towers, in addition to their existing equity stakes, as part of the new fundraising round. $85 million will be invested by a group of new equity investors including Macquarie Renaissance Infrastructure Fund (MRIF) which will invest $50 million and ADM Capital, contributing $20 million.
The investors have acquired newly issued shares in Russian Towers. The parties agreed not to disclose detailed commercial terms of the current investment round.
Russian Towers is a leading owner and developer of telecommunications towers in Russia. The company was established in 2009 and already has a portfolio of over 300 towers currently operating or under construction across 20 regions of Russia. The size of the initial investment round was not disclosed. The company leases space on each tower to multiple tenants and has secured lease contracts with all major mobile phone operators in Russia for its towers. The new investment round is planned to allow the company to expand its tower park to over 1,000 towers in the next three or four years. This will be achieved through a combination of new construction and the acquisition of existing towers.
Russian Towers does business with Russia's Big Three cellular providers. Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) told Interfax that it worked with Russian Towers in Northwest Russia and planned to extend that cooperation to other region. MegaFon recently announced a join project with Russian Towers and Russian Railways (RZD) to provide 3G communications for Russian rail transport. VimpelCom also said it used Russian Towers infrastructure.