Crown Castle has agreed to sell its Australian subsidiary to a consortium led by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Estates (MIRE) for A$2 billion (€1.4 billion).
Established in 2000, CCAL owns and operates 1,800 cell sites that enable Australian telcos to provide mobile coverage in every state and territory. Its customers include Optus, Telstra, and Vodafone Australia, as well as state broadband provider NBN Co. and emergency service network providers. CCAL is 77.6% owned by Crown Castle.
"While CCAL has be en a great contributor to our business, our decision to divest this business is opportunistic and allows us to re-allocate capital to growth enhancing initiatives in the U.S. market, which we believe is the most attractive wireless market in the world for wireless investment," said Crown Castle CEO Ben Moreland, in a statement on Thursday.
More specifically, Moreland said Crown plans to "redeploy capital towards our growing small cell networks, which we expect will be accretive to our long-term AFFO (adjusted funds from operations) and dividend per share growth rates."
Crown Castle said it expects the sale of CCAL to MIRE to generate net proceeds of A$1.6 billion after repayment of intercompany debt owed to it by CCAL and estimated transaction fees and expenses.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015.
