Whereas once the tower transaction pipeline in CALA flowed freely, the volume of deals has slowed in the past months as a growing gap has opened up between the valuation expectations of independent developers and those of the strategic investors to whom many had hoped to sell. How do the strategic buyers value independent developer portfolios? How can that value be enhanced? What portfolio characteristics erode value, and how can they be avoided? SBA Communications’ VP International David Porte hosted a roundtable on this topic at the TowerXchange Meetup Americas 2016 – here’s what we learned.
The towerco market can be divided into three tiers:
i) small to medium-sized towerco developers that are seeking to create value over a three to five year period before sale to the next tier of investor;
ii) mid-tier aggregator companies that do some development but their main business plan is to roll up other’s assets; and
iii) large towercos with long term investment horizons sometimes called strategic buyers.
