Read this article to learn:
Towercos who’s who: a comprehensive guide to the towercos active in the LATAM region
Key investors active in the LATAM tower space
MNOs guide: MNOs footprint and tower strategy at a glance
1848 Capital: Investor in Brazil Tower Company.
A1 Torres: Argentinian towerco with a portfolio of 130 towers in the country.
Accel: One of the leading venture capital firms in the world with over US$8.8bn in capital under management, Accel has funded the likes of Facebook, Dropbox and Spotify. QMC Telecom is among its investments in the tower sector.
African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM): Joint venture between Macquarie and Old Mutual with capital at work in IHS Towers.
Albright Capital Management (ACM): A private equity firm specialised in emerging markets. In April 2016, ACM granted a US$45mn five-year term credit facility to Innovattel LLC to build Torresec as the first independent tower company in Argentina. In February 2020, Albright Capital Management extended its credit facility to Torresec which is now the second largest independent towerco in Argentina, behind American Tower.
AlfaSite: AlfaSite is a Brazilian build-to-suit (BTS) firm part of Grupo Alfa which also owns a tower manufacturer (Metal Alfa), an MSP (Alfa Erb) and an energy equipment company (Alfa Energia).
Algar Telecom: Regional Brazilian MNO, the fifth largest carrier in the country with over 1,4 million mobile and broadband customers.
Allspring Global Investments Holdings: An asset management firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. It holds 1,013K shares in IHS Towers, representing 0.31% ownership of the company as of February 2023.
ALTÁN Redes: Initially formed in November 2016, and operating under the name Red Compartida (shared network), as a part of a sector reform aimed at curbing the market dominance of America Movil and improving low levels of penetration and coverage. Mexico's wholesale 4G network was required to meet 92.2% of the population by January 2024. However, 2021 turned out to be a turbulent year, as the company fell wildly behind target and then filed for bankruptcy and underwent restructuring. The coverage has currently reached 69.58% of the population, but further rollout has completely stopped amid financial difficulty.
Altice: MNO Altice is active in the Dominican Republic where it has sold its towers to Phoenix Tower International (back in 2018). Altice also has a footprint in France (where it carved out its towers into towerco Hivory and sold a 49.99% stake to KKR, prior to Cellnex reaching a deal to acquire 100% of Hivory) and Portugal (where the MNO has also sold towers to Cellnex), as well as the Israeli market.
América Móvil (AMX): AMX is one of the largest mobile network operators in the world and part of Carlos Slim’s group of companies. The MNO has operations across Latin America, as well as seven countries in Central & Eastern Europe (under the A1 Telekom Austria group). América Móvil operates as Claro in most markets in Latin America, and under the Telcel brand in Mexico. In 2014, AMX faced regulatory pressure to reduce its dominant position in Mexico, which forced it to carve-out over 11,000 of its telecom towers and create Telesites, a separate infrastructure entity (see Telesites). Telesites’ operations have since expanded to Costa Rica. In early 2021, América Móvil announced plans to spin off its tower assets into a separate entity. The new company, operating under the Sites brand, debuted on Mexican Stock Exchange in September 2022. The towerco now operates just over 34 thousand towers in 15 markets in Central and South America.
American Tower: The world’s largest independent towerco, American Tower has a portfolio of nearly 226 thousand towers globally. In Latin America, American Tower has a portfolio of over 48 thousand towers in eight countries, where it dominates the market. Over the years it has acquired towers from both MNOs and towercos, as well as rolling out new sites. The company also owns fibre assets in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia (as well as India and South Africa) having spent a significant amount of capital on both M&A and rollout. Whilst the towercos’ fibre operations in the region are relatively small, the company sees significant growth potential and strategic benefits of moving further into the space. In November 2021, American Tower acquired CoreSite's datacentre business for US$10bn with the intention of building out edge and on-ramp data capabilities.
Amzak Capital: Amzak Capital Management is the private investment firm of the Kazma family. The Kazma’s developed and operated cable systems in Canada and the U.S. until 1992, when they entered the Latin American markets, with operations in Aruba, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago and Martinique. In 1997, they built and operated Amnet, Central America’s largest cable television/triple play company, which was sold to Millicom International Cellular S.A. in 2008. Originally from Canada but based in the U.S. since 1979, Amzak counts BTS Towers among its current investments.
Andean Telecom Partners: Part of the DigitalBridge group of companies, ATP acquired Berkshire Partners’ Torres Unidas back in 2017 and more recently BTS Towers in February 2022. The company now own a portfolio of over 4 thousand towers across Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Paraguay. The company launched a fibre business unit in 2018 and also has small cell and DAS networks included in its portfolio, with ambitions to grow the non-tower digital infrastructure side of the business in 2023 and beyond.
Aplicanet: Aplicanet is a BTS firm active in Ecuador, where it runs a portfolio of around 140 towers.
Atis Group: Founded in 2016, Atis is an independent Argentinian towerco with a portfolio of around 200 sites. In 2017, the company received a US$100mn injection from Patria Investimentos to expand its portfolio.
AT&T: A US-formed operator, AT&T made its entrance in the Mexican mobile market thanks to the acquisition of Iusacell, Unefon (part of Iusacell) and Nextel back in 2014. AT&T has inherited networks largely divested to towercos. In late 2019, AT&T signed a last mile wireless network agreement with Movistar, granting the former access to AT&T’s nationwide 3G and 4G networks as well as any future technologies.
Balesia: Built to suit towerco which first established operations in Peru back in 2013 before expanding across Central & Latin America. The towerco has operations in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay, in addition to its Peruvian operations.
Berkshire Partners: Berkshire Partners is a leading private equity firm with substantial experience of tower industry investments. Berkshire Partners was an early-stage investor in Crown Castle and the investment arm behind Torres Unidas until its acquisition by Andean Tower Partners.
Bitel: Peruvian MNO owned by Vietnam’s largest MNO, Viettel. Bitel entered the Peruvian market in 2014 and in addition to an extensive mobile network, has one of the largest fibre networks in the country.
Blackstone: Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities (Tac Opps) specialises in time-sensitive and complex ventures and is the investment firm behind Phoenix Tower International’s expansion in the U.S., CALA, and more recently, Europe. Blackstone has previous experience of the towerco asset class, having invested in Global Tower Partners, which they successfully exited through the sale to AMT.
Borealnet: latest entrant in Chile, Borealnet plans to build and operate a wholesale, open access 5G network across the country.
Brazil Tower Company (BTC): BTC is a Brazilian BTS focused towerco with a portfolio of 1,400 towers. The company launched in 2011 and is owned by private investors, including the company’s CEO Dr Chahram Zolfaghari, and 1848 Capital. Brazil Tower Company’s management participates in ventures across the region, including Ecuador Tower Company and Colombia Tower Company.
Cable & Wireless: Acquired by Liberty Global in November 2015, Cable & Wireless has an extensive presence in the Caribbean where it operates in 20+ markets under the FLOW brand. The company has over 3.4mn mobile subscribers.
Cartesian Capital Group: A global private equity firm with proven expertise in assisting closely held companies to expand internationally. Since its inception in 2006, the firm has managed more than US$3bn in committed capital. Cartesian was the founding investor of NMS and BTS Towers. The firm also held a minority participation into Grupo TorreSur which sold its assets to SBA Communications in 2022.
Cell Site Solutions (CSS): CSS was created in 2013 as a joint venture between Gávea Investimentos and Goldman Sachs. Focused on BTS projects, co-locations, DAS and full turnkey services in Brazil, Peru and Colombia, CCS built a portfolio of 2,300 sites. In 2020, Cell Site Solutions was acquired by IHS Towers.
Centennial Towers: Build-to-suit towerco, backed by Breslau Capital, which had built a portfolio of over 1,600 sites. In April 2021, IHS Towers acquired Centennial’s tower business in Brazil and Colombia. Centennial retains its Mexican tower portfolio which numbers around 800 sites.
CENS: CENS a BTS company operating in Peru. It specialises in construction of build-to-suit base stations, fiber optic deployment and equipment installation. Since 2021, CENS has built more than 70 BTS stations.
CIFI: CIFI is a Panama-based investor and advisory firm in LATAM. CIFI aims to be the leading provider of finance for energy and infrastructure development in Latin America and the Caribbean. And has partnered with Brazil Tower Company and Ecuador Tower Company.
CNT: State-owned MNO in Ecuador. CNT has been rumoured to be assessing a tower sale.
Cootel: MNO in Nicaragua.
Colombia Tower Company (CTC): CTC is a BTS firm founded by executives behind Brazil Tower Company.
Continental Towers: Continental Towers is a BTS firm focused on deploying sites in Central America. Originally a joint venture between Terra Projects and Credit Suisse, it then received a US$120mn loan package from the IFC to further fund its Central American expansion in 2012. The company now operates a portfolio of over 1,300 towers in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru. It previously held assets in Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Mexico.
Cordiant Capital: An investor in digital infrastructure worldwide through both traditional limited partner funds as well as its permanent capital vehicle, Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited (listed on the LSE). The firm’s digital infrastructure team is co-headed by Steven Marshall (formerly President of American Tower) and Benn Mikula (the firm’s Joint Managing Partner). The firm focuses on growth capital investments in the middle market. Cordiant has offices in London, Montreal, Luxembourg and Sao Paulo. In 2018, Cordiant Capital led the debt lending to Brazil Tower Company.
CyCSA: The Argentinian engineering firm was acquired by American Tower in December 2016. With the deal, American Tower secured over 1,000 urban wireless sites, 2,500km of fibre-optic network and exclusive rights to deploy mobile infrastructure in various locations across Argentina.
Digicel: Digicel is a leading MNO with a presence in over twenty countries across Central America and the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Panama, El Salvador and Haiti. Since 2017, Digicel has started to divest its assets and has sold towers to Phoenix Tower International in El Salvador, Jamaica and the French Antilles.
DigitalBridge: DigitalBridge is a global digital infrastructure firm, with a heritage of over 25 years investing in and operating businesses across the digital ecosystem including cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, and edge infrastructure, the DigitalBridge team manages a $69 billion portfolio of digital infrastructure assets on behalf of its limited partners and shareholders. Headquartered in Boca Raton, DigitalBridge has key offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Luxembourg and Singapore. DigitalBridge’s tower investments in Latin America include Andean Telecom Partners (active in Colombia, Chile & Peru), Mexico Telecom Partners, and Highline do Brasil, other investments include, Scala Data Centers, Mundo Pacifico operating in Chile.
DirecTV: Peruvian MNO.
Ecuador Tower Company (ETC): ETC is a BTS firm founded by executives behind Brazil Tower Company.
Emerging Capital Partners: Private equity fund focussed on Africa; investors in IHS Towers.
Entel: Created back in the sixties by the Chilean government, Entel was privatised in the early nineties. Since then, the company has become the largest mobile network operator in Chile and in 2013 acquired Nextel de Perú for US$400mn. Entel carried out its first major tower transaction in 2019, selling 3,243 Chilean and Peruvian towers to American Tower for $772mn. Since then, it has announced sales of its Data Centre Businesses and plans to offload fibre in the coming years.
Entel SA: Entel SA is the Bolivian State-owned telecom company which was nationalised in 2008. Former shareholders include Telecom Italia which settled a dispute with the Bolivian government over the nationalisation for US$100mn. Not to be confused with Entel in Chile and Peru.
Even Telecom: Even Telecom is a Mexican company focused on turnkey infrastructure services for the telecommunications market and maintenance of fixed and mobile telephone networks. Funded by Southern Cross Group.
FLOW: Cable & Wireless’ operations across the Caribbean.
FMO: Dutch development bank. Investor in IHS Towers.
Gávea Investimentos: Brazilian asset management firm, Gávea was founded back in 2003 by the former president of the Central Bank of Brazil, Arminio Fraga. The fund invested approximately US$150mn to create towerco, Cell Site Solutions (CCS) back in 2013 in a joint US$300mn investment with Goldman Sachs and sold its shares to the latter in 2016 (CCS has subsequently been acquired by IHS Towers).
GIC: Singapore sovereign wealth fund. Investor in IHS Towers.
GME Alliance: GME Argentina was founded in 2016, its investors are all private equity, since then the company built over 210 sites, from those sold 180 sites to PTI. GME now has 30 sites under management in Argentina. As of 2021 their key customer was Claro, however with the entry of Sites that changed significantly, and they are now working with Telefonica. The company has also presence in Uruguay, but with only 3 sites, it is looking to expand and acquiring a small portfolio of a private tower owner.
Golden Comunicaciones: Created in April 2016 via a joint venture between Goldman Sachs and Innova Capital Partners, the BTS firm is focused on serving the Colombian and Costa Rican telecom market.
Goldman Sachs: Global investment firm whose investments in Latin American towers include IHS Towers (1.42% stake as of February 2023), Golden Comunicaciones (a BTS firm focused on the Colombian and Costa Rican markets in which it coinvests with Innova Capital Partners) and Continental (in which it is a minority investor). Goldman Sachs also invested in CSS alongside Gávea Investimentos, prior to the towerco’s acquisition by IHS Towers.
GP Investments: GP Investments is a leading investment firm in Latin America and was the firm behind BR Towers, one of the leading towercos in Brazil with its 4,200 sites that was sold to American Tower in 2014 for US$978mn.
Grupo TorreSur: Headed by Jim Eisenstein, one of the pioneers of the US tower industry and co-founder of American Tower, GTS was funded by Providence Equity Partners, one of the leading equity firms in the global TMT industry. Brazilian towerco acquired the bulk of its towers from tower deals with Telefonica and Oi between 2011 and 2013. In 2019, Grupo Torresur sold a portfolio of 1,313 sites to SBA Communications. GTS sold a further 2,115 towers to IHS Towers and its remaining portfolio of 2,800 sites to SBA in 2022, exiting the market.
Highline: Highline was created back in November 2012 to serve the Brazilian market with its BTS and co-location services. In 2017, Highline’s portfolio of 970 sites was acquired by SBA Communications in a private deal. Highline subsequently built a further c. 300 sites in Brazil that was acquired by Digital Colony in 2019. Since the acquisition by Digital Colony, Highline has acquired Phoenix Tower do Brasil (and its 2,500 sites) as well as a c. 600 sites from Oi, to take it to a grand total of 5,000.
Housatonic Partners: Housatonic Partners is a U.S. private equity firm with over US$1bn in capital under management. Mexican towerco, QMC Telecom is among its investments in the telecom infrastructure sector.
IDB Invest: The private sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank.
IHS Towers: Multinational towerco with a portfolio of 33,158 sites. The company began its Latin American expansion in 2020 with the acquisition of Cell Site Solutions (and its operations in Brazil, Peru and Colombia). In 2021, the towerco announced two Latin American deals in quick succession – the acquisition of Skysites and its portfolio of 1,000 towers in Brazil, and the acquisition of Centennial Towers’ tower business in Brazil and Colombia (with Centennial’s Mexican business remaining outside of the transaction). Through the acquisition of Cell Site Solutions, IHS Towers has been developing a DAS business, learnings of which are being taken to its other markets. IHS Towers investors include Wendel, AIIM, ECP, FMO, GIC, Goldman Sachs, IFC and Investec.
In 2022, IHS Towers closed a further transaction with Grupo Torre Sur - paying US$315,00,000 for 2115 towers. The towerco also owns fibre in Brazil and completed its IPO in late 2021.
IIMT: IIMT is a BTS and co-location firm active in Mexico where it runs approximately 650 sites. In addition to its own portfolio, IIMT enjoys an agreement with the Federal Electricity Commission in Mexico to utilise its infrastructure for telecom purposes.
Indigo Capital: Indigo Capital was founded in 1998 in New York and is an investment firm focused on private equity in Latin America. Indigo Capital counts Torrecom and Torres Unidas among its current and past investments.
Innova Capital Partners: Innova is a global investor focused on energy and infrastructure projects and the investing arm behind Golden Comunicaciones (Colombia & Costa Rica), via a joint venture with Goldman Sachs.
Innovattel: Operating under the brand Torresec in most markets, Innovattel is a Puerto Rico based BTS firm active in Argentina, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The company previously held assets in Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru but has sold them. They are the second largest tower provider in Argentina and are funded by Albright Capital Management (ACM) and in Dominican Republic by CIFI Asset Management.
Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE): ICE is the State-owned electricity and telecom provider of Costa Rica. Operating under brand Kölbi, the company is the leading MNO in the country ahead of Movistar and Claro. ICE has to date retained its portfolio of approximately 1,000 towers but has used towercos for new build and co-location.
Intelli Site Solutions: Intelli Site Solutions is an independent digital real estate developer in Mexico. The company, fully owned by local entrepreneurs, was founded in 2013 and has built over 400 build-to-suit towers and over 12 neutral host DAS systems in Mexico’s landmark venues.
Inter-American Development Bank: The largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean.
International Finance Corporation (IFC): IFC is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. As a member of the World Bank Group, IFC advances economic development and improves the lives of people by investing in and encouraging the growth of the private sector. Over the last 10 years, IFC has invested and mobilized close to US$2 billion for independent tower operators in emerging markets including the likes of IHS Towers, Phoenix International, and Helios.
Internet Para Todos: Formed by Telefónica, Facebook, IADB and CAF, Internet Para Todos is an innovative open access wholesale infrastructure operator that aims to provide connectivity in rural areas across Peru. The initiative has currently deployed more than 1,600 base stations with 3G and 4G technologies and aims to improve coverage where 3.2mn people only have access to voice services and 2.8mn don’t enjoy any coverage at all. IPT uses OpenRAN technology for around half of its network.
Korea Investment Corporation (KIC): Korean sovereign wealth fund. Investor in IHS Towers, holds a 6.53% stake in the company as of February 2023.
Lati: Lati is the recently formed towerco carved-out of Millicom. 10,500 sites across Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador and Nicaragua are now being managed separately. Millicom favours raising funds through a partial or wholesale to an outside investor.
Macquarie Group: Australian Macquarie is a leading investment and advisory firm globally active in the telecom tower sector. In Latin America, Macquarie is invested in Mexico Telecom Partners (via the Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund and in conjunction with Digital Bridge), Macquarie is reportedly considering the sale of MTP.
Madison Dearborn Partners: MDP is the U.S. based private equity firm behind BTS firm Centennial Towers. Centennial’s Brazilian and Colombian operations were recently acquired by IHS Towers although their Mexican operations were excluded.
Mexico Telecom Partners: Mexican towerco founded in 2014 via the combination of the Mexican tower portfolios of Digital Colony and Macquarie Mexico Infrastructure Fund. Digital Colony and Macquarie are reportedly considering a sale of the towerco following the receipt of unsolicited bids. Sources suggest the sale could fetch as much as US$1bn for the towerco whose sites currently number close to 3,100.
MHC Holdings: MHC is an investment firm focused on telecoms and emerging markets based in Panama. The firm backed Torres Andinas until the towerco sold its assets to SBA Communications and stopped operating in the region.
Millicom: Millicom is an international telecom company active in fourteen markets in Africa and Latin America, mostly trading under the brand Tigo. In the CALA region, Millicom is active in Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay. The operator has sold towers in Colombia and Paraguay (to American Tower) and in El Salvador (to SBA). In February 2022, Millicom announced a tower carve out of 10,000 sites across Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador and Nicaragua, which has now been formed into a separate company called Lati.
MX Towers: MX Towers is a towerco, and a part of MXT Holdings (MXT), an investment platform created in August 2015, dedicated to digital infrastructure assets. Current key geography is Mexico. MXT currently owns and operates 650+ telecom towers, 11 DAS systems, and ~3,400 km of long-haul and metropolitan fiber optic networks in Mexico.
Nextel: MNO brand ownd by NII Holdings which has ceased operations. Nextel’s Chilean operations were sold to Novator, Peruvian operations to Entel, Mexican operations to AT&T, Argentinian operations to sister company CableVision, and finally Brazilian operations to America Movil. Prior to the sale of the various opcos, Nextel Brazil and Mexico sold towers to American Tower.
Nitorum Capital: A New York-based hedge fund manager, as of February 2023, holds 1,988K shares in IHS Towers, representing 0.60% ownership of the company.
Novator Partners: UK private equity firm which owns MNO WOM, active in both Chile and Colombia. Novator also owns Icelandic MNO, Nova and recently exited its investment in Poland’s Play.
Oi: Embattled Brazilian MNO whose mobile assets are being acquired by Brazil’s three major MNOs, Vivo (Telefonica), Claro and TIM. TIM will secure the lion’s share of Oi’s business, paying 44% of the total acquisition value which will give them access to 14.5mn Oi mobile customers. Ahead of the sale, Oi agreed the sale of its remaining tower portfolio to Digital Colony’s Highline. Oi has completed a number of sale and leaseback transactions prior to this, agreeing deals with both SBA Communications and Grupo Torresur.
Orange: Orange is the leading French telecom operator with operations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. In the Americas it is active in Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana. Its Dominican Republic unit was sold to Altice in 2013. Orange has formed a towerco in France and Spain called TOTEM with plans to roll this out across Europe. Africa and the Caribbean are excluded from these plans.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC): OPIC is a U.S. Government financial institution that provides capital to private equity funds. They supported IHS and Helios Towers in Africa and also financed Apollo Towers in Myanmar, being the first U.S. institution to invest in the country. They work with IFC, Cartesian and Amzak Capital among others. In 2019 they just approved a $US26mn allocation to support BTS expansion across Peru and Ecuador.
P2 – Pátria: Pátria is a leading private equity firm active in Brazil in a variety of sectors including infrastructure and counting Blackstone among its partners. In 2012, Pátria invested in Highline do Brasil and in 2015 in Odata, a data centre infrastructure and co-location service company. As of 2017, P2’s latest investment in the sector is ATIS Group, an independent towerco active in Argentina. In 2020, Pátria’s executives created a new BTS towerco in Brazil called Winity.
Peppertree Capital: Peppertree is a private equity fund focused on growth equity, recapitalisation and buyout opportunities in the telecom infrastructure industry. Peppertree is a minority investor in Continental Towers.
Peterson Partners: Peterson Partners is a private equity and venture capital firm primarily active in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Mexico, Brazil and India and counts QMC Telecom among its PE investments.
Phoenix Tower do Brasil (PTB): Former sister company of Phoenix Tower International (PTI), PTB was acquired by Digital Colony backed Highline in 2020. PTB was created after the acquisition of T4U Holdings by PTI and built a portfolio of 2,500 sites in the country. In 2019, PTB acquired small cell, DAS and urban solution company K2-Towers.
Phoenix Tower International (PTI): PTI was founded in 2013 by Dagan Kasavana, the M&A mastermind behind the GTP rollup strategy and sale to American Tower. PTI now owns and operates approximately around 12,800 towers across the Latin American region (operating in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Antilles, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and Peru). PTI has achieved its current scale via both organic and inorganic growth. In addition to its operations in LATAM, PTI has entered the European market where it now has operations in France, Ireland, Italy, Malta & Cyprus. The company is backed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities.
Plata Tower Company: Created in 2016 by one of the executives behind Brazil Tower Company and Arqueiro Telecom – Alex Sepehri-Nik – Plata Tower Company is a BTS firm active in Argentina.
Providence Equity Partners: One of the largest global private equity firms operating in the TMT industry. In Latin America, Providence was an investment partner of Brazilian towerco Grupo TorreSur, which exited in 2022.
QMC Telecom: QMC Telecom: QMC Telecom was founded back in 2008 in Puerto Rico and currently owns and operates a portfolio of over 3,600 digital infrastructure assets such as towers, rooftops, DAS and SLS in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Puerto Rico.
Red Compartida: ALTÁN Redes launched Red Compartida in 2018 with the goal to cover at least 92.2% of the Mexican population by 2024. The project is a broadband wireless 4.5G network, contributing to the enhancement of both coverage and capacity across thousands of urban, suburban and rural Mexican locations.
Russell Investments Group: An investment firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA. It holds 989K shares in IHS Towers, representing 0.30% ownership of the company as of February 2023.
SBA Communications (SBA): With over 35,000 towers across the U.S., Canada, Central and South America and South Africa, SBA is one of the top ten towercos in the world. In CALA, SBA runs just over 15,000 sites across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru. The towerco has completed tower deals with Telefonica and Oi in Brazil as well as Tigo in El Salvador, whilst also acquiring tower portfolios of CTR, Highline do Brasil I, Torres Andinas and Grupo TorreSur.
Sites: Sites is a new tower company, formed and listed on Mexico Stock Exchange in autumn 2023. It is a carve-out of América Móvil, one of the largest mobile network operators in the world. The towerco operates just over 34 thousand towers in 15 markets in Central and South America.
Sercomtel: Sercomtel is a local mobile network operator serving the Brazilian region of Paraná.
Silver Swan Capital: Silver Swan Capital, a NY-based investment firm, sealed a US$40mn funding deal with Brazil Tower Company in August 2016 to finance the towerco expansion plans across Brazil.
Sky: Brazilian MNO.
Skysites: Skysites was an infrastructure firm active in Brazil focused on BTS, small cells, co-locations and iDAS. Skysites was acquired by IHS Towers in 2021.
Southern Cross Group: Southern Cross Group is a private equity firm focused on Latin America with offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and the U.S. Founded in 1998 to make value-oriented investments in Latin American companies, it has invested over 3.3 billion dollars in the region, in a wide range of industries, including: IT services, telecom, utilities, retail, consumer goods, homebuilding, entertainment, logistics, pharmaceuticals, energy, oil & gas and media. Mexico’s Even Group is one of its portfolio companies in the telecom infrastructure sector. Even’s offerings span metro fiber and long-haul fiber network connectivity, fiber to the tower and fiber to the data center networking, cell tower lease, in-building connectivity solutions, and wireline network construction and maintenance
Surf: Brazilian MNO.
Telecommunications Partners: Telecommunications Partners is a BTS firm active in the Peruvian market.
Telecom Argentina: The Argentinian MNO, which trades as Personal, is the market leader by subscribers. After the merger with Cablevision, the cable broadband unit of Grupo Clarín, Telecom Argentina absorbed Nextel’s portfolio and the new consolidated giant announced a two-year investment plan of US$5,000mn to boost connectivity through a considerable infrastructure upgrade and expansion. The company has a portfolio of 6,553 sites made of 5,084 owned towers and 1,469 co-locations and they are planning to build around 700 towers before the end of the year. Telecom Argentina also has operations in Paraguay under the brand, Telecom Personal Paraguay.
Telefónica: Telefónica is a Spanish telecom company active in Europe, Asia, North, Central and South America, trading primarily under the Movistar brand in LATAM (under Vivo in Brazil). In 2019, the signed a last mile wireless network agreement with AT&T Mexico to allow it access to AT&T’s nationwide networks. This allowed Movistar to return its entire spectrum holdings and marked a further step in Telefónica exiting the region. Telefónica has completed a number of sale and leaseback transactions in the Americas starting back in 2011. In 2016, Telefónica announced the creation of its tower and subsea cabling arm Telxius, before selling a 40% stake to KRR and a 9.99% stake to Pontegadea. After transferring further towers in Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Argentina (as well as Spain and Germany) to the unit, Telefónica agreed the sale of 100% Telxius tower business to American Tower in early 2021. Telefónica is understood to retain a portfolio of around 20,000 towers in LATAM.
Telesites: Telesites is the infrastructure company carved out of America Movil’s operations in Mexico back in 2015 in a bid to address America Movil’s dominance in the country. The company listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange in December 2020. As of Q1 2023, the company owns and manages just over 21,700 towers in Mexico, as a result of the transfer of assets from América Móvil as well as organic growth. Additionally, Telesites is active in Costa Rica where it has built just under 300 sites for Claro.
Terra Towers: Majority investor in Continental Towers.
Tillman Global Holdings (TGH): Multinational tower and infrastructure investment and operations firm led by Sanjiv Ahuja, former Chairman and co-founder of Eaton Towers and ex-CEO of Orange. TGH has a joint venture partnership with JC Decaux, giving them the opportunity to locate points of service, particularly small cells, on over 1mn prime locations worldwide. TGH is pursuing a couple of key opportunities in Latin America.
TIM Brasil: Owned by Telecom Italia, TIM Brasil is the third largest mobile network operator in Brazil, serving. In 2014, TIM entered into a sale and leaseback transaction with American Tower for the sale of the majority of its sites in various tranches. The deal was finalised in 2017 with a total of 5,873 sites transferred for a total value of US$850mn.
Torrecom: Torrecom, one of the leading independent tower companies in Latin America with a portfolio of over 1,400 towers across Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, El Salvador, Ecuador, Chile and Paraguay. Torrecom’s focus continues with new tower development (BTS) and acquisitions. Its management team has well over 100 years of experience with both towerco and carrier backgrounds.
Tower One: Tower One was launched in 2015 and is a towerco listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange. The company has operations across multiple international markets including Canada, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. In 2020 the company signalled its intention to enter the Ecuadorian market, via its subsidiary Towerthree Wireless del Ecuador.
Trilogy International Partners: Firm which owns Bolivian MNO, Viva. In February 2019, Phoenix Tower International announced a sale and leaseback with Trilogy for 600 towers in Bolivia. Trilogy had previously sold its towers in the Dominican Republic to Phoenix Tower (prior to selling its opco in the country).
Ufinet: Ufinet is a neutral wholesale operator in the telecommunications market. The company provides data connectivity through fiber optics with network coverage in cities in 17 countries. The company deployed over 100,000 km of optical fiber in over 25 years in Latin America.
Uniti Towers: Was a Latin American towerco, subsidiary of CS&L, a U.S. based REIT, Uniti Towers acquired 359 sites from NMS in 2016 and sold the entirety of its assets to Phoenix Tower International in February 2019, to then close its regional operations. The US$100mn transaction included approximately 500 towers across Mexico, Colombia and Nicaragua.
Viva Dominicana: The third mobile network operator in the Dominican Republic. Viva was previously owned by Trilogy Interntional Partners who agreed the sale of the opco’s towers to Phoenix Tower, prior to selling Viva to Telemicro Group.
Vivo: Telefónica brand in Brazil. See Telefónica.
Vox: MNO in Paraguay.
Wendel: Investor in IHS Towers, holds a 19% in the company as of February 2023.
Winity: Launched in 2020 by the Patria Investment (founding investor of Highline do Brasil and a leading infrastructure investor in Latam), Winity is a Brazilian integrated wireless infrastructure provider. With the purchase of the 700 MHz spectrum and a contracted plan to cover 55,000+ km of highways and 600+ locations, Winity is implementing an innovative business model, being the first Brazilian mobile wholesale operator focus on covering underserved regions in Brazil to connect millions of citizens and providing connectivity solutions for a variety of industries. Winity’ plan is largest digital inclusion project in Brazil, with a potential do reach up to 19,000 telecommunication sites.
WOM: An MNO owned by UK private equity firm, Novator Partners. WOM acquired Nextel Chile in 2015 and also entered the Colombian market in 2019 (where it has absorbed its sister company, Avantel). In 2022, Phoenix Tower International acquired 3,800 towers from WOM in Chile.
Who have we missed?
Have we missed a company active in the LATAM telecom tower market? Then please email us at contact@towerxchange.com and don’t forget to sign up for the annual TowerXchange Meetup Americas. Visit https://meetup.towerxchange.com/americas to register and find out more.
