A portfolio of 774 towers, including those used for radio and TV broadcasts of the ABC and SBS, will be the subject of a multi-billion-dollar auction held by Barrenjoey.

BAI Communications, owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, are hoping to offload the towers, which earn roughly A$180 million before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

BAI “designs, builds and operates highly available communications networks – broadcast, radio, cellular, Wi-Fi, IP networks – globally”.

Information memorandums were issued today, with first-round bids due in the middle of next month.

Morrison & Co and Brookfield are among the interested parties.

Australian Tower Network, owned by AustralianSuper and Singtel, bought Macquarie’s 2,000-strong mobile towers company Axicom earlier this month, for around $3.5 billion.

ATN has a portfolio of about 4,000 towers, making it the second-largest towers portfolio holiding in Australia, behind Telstra and Future Fund’s Amplitel.