Communications Sales & Leasing Completes Acquisition of Tower Cloud

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Aug. 31, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Communications Sales & Leasing, Inc. (“CS&L” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:CSAL) announced today the completion of its acquisition of Tower Cloud, Inc. (“Tower Cloud”). The Company used cash on hand and borrowings under its revolving credit facility to fund the $185 million cash portion of the purchase price and transaction costs, and issued 1.9 million common shares.

Kenny Gunderman, President and Chief Executive Officer of CS&L, commented, “We are pleased to announce the closing of this transaction and the combination of Tower Cloud and PEG Bandwidth into a unified organization. Uniti Fiber is the new brand name of our combined fiber infrastructure group.  As previously announced, Ron Mudry leads the combined business as President of Uniti Fiber. Mike Friloux, previously CEO of PEG, has been named Chief Technology Officer of CS&L.”

Uniti Fiber is a leading provider of data transport services, with a particular focus on providing infrastructure solutions to the wireless and enterprise sectors, including fiber-to-the-tower backhaul, small cell networks, and dark fiber deployments. Uniti Fiber’s network consists of 406,000 strand miles of fiber with approximately 184,000 fiber strand miles awarded for future deployment for wireless carriers.  Additional information about Uniti Fiber can be found on its website at www.unitifiber.com.

ABOUT CS&L

CS&L, an internally managed real estate investment trust, is engaged in the acquisition and construction of mission critical communications infrastructure, and is a leading provider of wireless infrastructure solutions for the communications industry.  CS&L currently owns 4.2 million fiber strand miles, 86 wireless towers, and other communications real estate throughout the United States and Mexico. Additional information about CS&L can be found on its website at www.cslreit.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended from time to time. Those forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical statements of fact and those regarding our intent, belief or expectations regarding CS&L’s financial position, results of operations, market position, growth opportunities, economic conditions and other similar forecasts and statements of expectation, including, but not limited to, expectations regarding Uniti Fiber’s future fiber deployments.

Words such as “anticipate(s),” “expect(s),” “intend(s),” “estimate(s),” “foresee(s),” “plan(s),” “believe(s),” “may,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “seek(s)” and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could lead to actual results differing materially from those projected, forecasted or expected. Although we believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be attained. Factors which could materially alter our expectations with regard to the forward-looking statements or which could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations include, but are not limited to: the ability and willingness of customers to meet and/or perform their obligations under any contractual arrangements that are entered into with us; the ability of customers to comply with laws, rules and regulations in the operation of the assets we lease to them; the availability of and our ability to identify suitable acquisition opportunities and our ability to acquire and lease the respective properties on favorable terms; our ability to generate sufficient cash flows to service our outstanding indebtedness; our ability to access debt and equity capital markets; changes in the credit ratings of CS&L and our customers; fluctuating interest rates; our ability to retain key management personnel; our ability to qualify or maintain our status as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”); changes in the U.S. tax law and other state, federal or local laws, whether or not specific to REITs; other risks inherent in ownership of communications distribution systems, including potential liability relating to environmental matters and illiquidity of real estate investments; the risk that we fail to fully realize the potential benefits of M&A transactions or have difficulty integrating acquired companies; and additional factors discussed in the Risk Factors sections of our reports filed with the SEC.

CS&L expressly disclaims any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any of the forward looking statements set forth in this release to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any statement is based.