Crown Castle Announces Agreement to Acquire Sunesys
April 30 2015 - 6:07AM
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."
Contacts: Jay Brown, CFO Son Nguyen, VP - Corporate Finance
Crown Castle International Corp. 713-570-3050
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