On 19 December 2016 American Tower announced the acquisition of French FPS Towers for €697mn. The deal has held the attention of the European tower market since the summer, when Antin Infrastructure Partners announced their intention to find a buyer for the entrepreneurial towerco. In this editorial we will review what both FPS and American Tower bring to the table, discuss some of the dynamics which influenced the bidding process, and share some exclusive comment from American Tower as to their thoughts on the deal.
In October 2016, it was believed that as many as ten bidders were competing for FPS Towers, including Cellnex, Europe’s leading home-grown towerco who have been on something of a buying spree in Europe recently, and 3i, investors in the UK’s Wireless Infrastructure Group (WIG), whose intention was to create a new model of European towerco platform.
