Tuesday, July 22, 2008

SBA adds Light Tower to its local buys in $224M deal

By Mass High Tech Staff

Boxborough-based wireless tower developer Light Tower Wireless LLC has agreed to sell its wireless infrastructure subsidiary Light Tower LLC to Florida-based communications infrastructure owner SBA Communications Corp. in a deal that could be worth up to $224 million.

Combined with its $430 million purchase yesterday of Westborough-based tower developer Optasite Holding Co. Inc., SBA has spent $654 million this week acquiring New England wireless tower assets.

The Light Tower deal includes a “sellers option” through which SBA Communications will either pay $204 million in cash plus 1.15  million shares of SBA common stock, or a total of $224 million in cash. All cash to be paid by SBA will be drawn from an existing $335 million senior credit facility.

Founded in 2007, Light Tower Wireless owns 340 wireless communication tower sites in 23 states, many in the northeast. The company’s properties also include five managed sites and five distributed antenna system networks. According to company officials, Light Tower Wireless’ network averages 2.2 tenants per tower site.

At the close of the transaction, which is expected to come on or before October 31, 2008, Light Tower Wireless is expected to be generating $18 million to $19 million of annualized site leasing revenue and $13 million to $14 million of annualized tower cash flow, according to the company.

SBA Communications is an independent tower operator with a network of more than 35,000 antenna sites in the United States.