Australian Tower Network, owned by AustralianSuper and Singtel, has won the auction for Macquarie’s mobile towers company Axicom.
The deal values Axicom at about $3.5 billion, and will see ATN add over 2000 telco towers to its portfolio, effectively doubling its holdings.
ATN now 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. The towers business in Australia is now very much a two-horse race.
Singtel’s Optus sold 70 per cent of ATN to Australian Super last year, and holds 30 per cent of the business.
Axicom paid in the ballpark of $2 billion for Crown Castle’s 1,700-strong tower portfolio in 2015, making this an impressive result for the Macquarie-led group.
Axicom expects to bring in $235 million revenue and $150 million EBITDA in the current financial year.
