(By Balaseshan) SBA Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:SBAC), an independent wireless tower operator, said it has agreed to buy 3,252 mobile phone tower sites in the U.S. and Puerto Rico from privately held TowerCo for about $1.45 billion.
SBA anticipates the transaction to be immediately add to adjusted funds from operations per share. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2012.
SBA will pay $1.2 billion in cash and 4.6 million shares of SBA Class A common stock to TowerCo. The cash consideration shall be paid from a combination of cash on hand, existing credit facilities and up to $900 million in financing commitments from J.P. Morgan.
Pro forma for the closing of the transaction, SBA expects that its net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA ratio will be about 7.8 to 8.0 times. SBA estimates the TowerCo assets will produce about $93 to $95 million in tower cash flow for the full calendar 2013.
As was the case with Mobilitie acquisition earlier this year, SBA expects these towers to be in great demand for the future cell-splitting needs of US wireless carriers, which needs it anticipates would flow from the continued growth in consumer demand for wireless data services.
J.P. Morgan acted as financial advisor and Greenberg Traurig, LLP acted as legal advisor to SBA. Wells Fargo Securities, LLC acted as financial advisor and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as legal advisor to TowerCo.
SBAC closed Monday's regular session up 1.63% at $55.64. The stock has been trading between $32.36 and $56 for the past 52 weeks.