HOUSTON, April 30, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Crown Castle International
Corp. (NYSE:CCI) (“Crown Castle”) announced today that it has entered
into a definitive agreement to acquire Quanta Fiber Networks, Inc.
(“Sunesys”) for approximately $1.0 billion in cash (subject to certain
limited adjustments). Sunesys, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quanta
Services, Inc. (NYSE:PWR), is a fiber services provider that owns or
has rights to nearly 10,000 miles of fiber in major metropolitan
markets across the United States, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia,
Chicago, Atlanta, Silicon Valley, and northern New Jersey, with
approximately 60% of Sunesys’ fiber miles located in the top 10 basic
trading areas (“BTAs”).
The acquisition of Sunesys is expected to further strengthen Crown
Castle’s leading position in small cell networks by more than doubling
Crown Castle’s fiber footprint available for small cell deployments and
expanding Crown Castle’s presence in many of the top U.S. metropolitan
markets. Small cells represent a network of antennas, or nodes,
connected by fiber and designed to facilitate wireless communications
services for multiple operators that are focused on augmenting their
network capacity. Today, Crown Castle owns or has rights to
approximately 7,000 miles of fiber supporting approximately 14,000
nodes, which contribute 7% to each of Crown Castle’s site rental
revenues and site rental gross margin. Pro forma for the proposed
acquisition, Crown Castle will own or have rights to more than 16,000
miles of fiber.
“We are thrilled with the agreement we have reached to acquire
Sunesys,” said Ben Moreland, Crown Castle’s President and Chief
Executive Officer. “We pursued this transaction based on our view that
the unique location of Sunesys’ high-quality fiber assets will help to
accelerate and extend the runway of growth in our small cell
deployments. Small cells are playing an increasingly critical role as
wireless carriers pursue fiber-fed deployments to add capacity and
density to their networks to accommodate the significant growth in
mobile data. The Sunesys fiber assets are both complementary to our
existing footprint and located where we expect to see significant
investment by wireless carriers. Based on current small cell activity,
including awarded and proposed small cell deployments, we have
visibility into more than 3,500 small cell opportunities on or near the
Sunesys fiber. Given the seemingly limitless consumer demand for mobile
data and the wireless carriers’ need to meet such demand, we believe
there is a significant opportunity for us to grow small cells well
beyond the activity we see today.”
Crown Castle expects the acquisition to close by the end of 2015 and to
be immediately accretive to Adjusted Funds from Operations (“AFFO”) per
share upon closing. The transaction is expected to contribute
approximately $80 to $85 million to gross margin with approximately $20
million of general and administrative expenses in the first year of
Crown Castle’s ownership. Supplemental materials related to the
transaction have been posted on the Crown Castle website at
http://investor.crowncastle.com.
ABOUT CROWN CASTLE
Crown Castle provides wireless carriers with the infrastructure they
need to keep people connected and businesses running. With
approximately 40,000 towers and 14,000 small cell nodes supported by
approximately 7,000 miles of fiber, Crown Castle is the nation’s
largest provider of shared wireless infrastructure with a significant
presence in the top 100 U.S. markets. In addition, Crown Castle
operates approximately 1,800 towers in Australia. For more information
on Crown Castle, please visit www.crowncastle.com.
Cautionary Language Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based
on Crown Castle management’s expectations. Such statements include
plans, projections and estimates regarding (1) the anticipated Sunesys
acquisition, including timing, (2) potential benefits of the Sunesys
acquisition, including with respect to Crown Castle’s competitive
position and the contribution to or impact on Crown Castle’s financial
or operating results, including AFFO per share, revenues, gross margin,
and general and administrative expenses, (3) Crown Castle’s fiber
assets, (4) the role of and demand for small cells, (5) wireless
carrier network deployments, investment and expenditures, (6) mobile
data demand and growth and (7) demand for, potential growth of and
opportunities which may be derived from the Sunesys assets. Such
forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties
and assumptions, including prevailing market conditions and other
factors. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties
materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual
results may vary materially from those expected. More information about
potential risk factors that could affect Crown Castle and its results
is included in Crown Castle’s filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The term “including,” and any variation thereof, means
“including, without limitation.”
PR Archives: Latest, By Company, By Date