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Who is behind the purchase of Vodafone’s tower portfolio?
Leading global private investments firm Northleaf Capital Partners has made a tilt into the lucrative mobile tower infrastructure sector. Northleaf purchased a 40 percent stake in Aotearoa Towers Limited (“Aotearoa” or the “Company”), a mobile tower infrastructure business, from Vodafone New Zealand Limited (“Vodafone NZ”).
The transaction helps create New Zealand’s largest independent tower company, that wholly-owns 1,500 towers covering 98% of New Zealand’s population.
What are the benefits of this transaction?
Mobile tower infrastructure is the backbone of telecommunication networks, enabling customer communication and data consumption. As mobile phones become more complex and transmit larger volumes of data, demand for such infrastructure is likely to accelerate. The Company will benefit from the 20-year long-term revenue contract with Vodafone NZ, with the option for two 10-year extensions. Vodafone NZ has also confirmed that it will build additional sites to meet its expected coverage and capacity requirements over the next ten years.
Tom Irvine, Managing Director at Northleaf said, “The Company is an excellent fit with Northleaf’s communications infrastructure investment strategy and our broader portfolio of mid-market infrastructure assets in select OECD countries. This investment provides our investor exposure to an attractive and growing sector.”
“We are excited to expand our digital infrastructure presence and to establish the largest independent tower company in New Zealand. Mobile connectivity is more important than ever, with data growth continuing to expand at rapid rates and remote work becoming more prevalent. The Company provides essential infrastructure which will contribute positively to New Zealand society in the long term,” says Mr Irvine.
Northleaf’s infrastructure portfolio has 40 assets in select OECD countries. Some of which include the Waterloo Wind Farm, Lal Lal Wind Farms project in Victoria and a bulk liquid storage business with operations in Australia and New Zealand.
Completion of the transaction is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval and is anticipated to occur in the second half of 2022.
