SHEN - Shenandoah Telecommunications Company to Sell its Towers for $310 Million | Benzinga
EDINBURG, Va., March 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shenandoah Telecommunications Company ("Shentel" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:SHEN) announced that it has entered into a Purchase and Sale Agreement with Vertical Bridge Holdco, LLC ("Vertical Bridge") to sell its tower portfolio and operations ("Tower Portfolio") to Vertical Bridge for $310.3 million in cash (the "Transaction"). The Transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Vertical Bridge will pay Shentel the $310.3 million purchase price on the date of the initial closing. Subsequent closings will occur as closing conditions are met for any remaining sites. The Company expects an initial closing in March 2024. The Company expects to pay up to $10 million in 2024 income taxes as a result of the gain on the sale after utilization of net operating loss carryforwards. The Shentel Tower Portfolio being sold consists of 226 tower portfolio sites1 and generated $18.6 million in revenue, $9.5 million of operating income and $11.6 million of Adjusted EBITDA2 in 2023. Please refer to the Company's Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") for additional details on the Transaction.
"The proceeds from the sale of our Tower business will provide Shentel with additional growth capital to support the planned expansion of our Glo Fiber line of business to approximately 600,000 homes and business passings by the end of 2026. With the expected closing of this Transaction and the previously announced $356 million of committed financings supporting our pending acquisition of Horizon Telcom, we believe our capital structure is well balanced and will provide future financial flexibility," said Shentel's President and CEO, Christopher E. French.
"We are pleased to add these purpose-built broadband telephony towers to our growing portfolio. The towers are high quality assets with available capacity for additional tenants and are located in difficult areas to build new towers due to zoning restrictions and terrain challenges. The geographic concentration of the portfolio offers a unique opportunity for future deployment of existing and new technologies," said Vertical Bridge's President and CEO, Ron Bizick.
About Shenandoah Telecommunications
Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel) provides broadband services through its high speed, state-of-the-art fiber optic and cable networks to customers in the Mid-Atlantic United States. The Company's services include: broadband internet, video and voice; fiber optic Ethernet, wavelength and leasing; and tower colocation leasing. The Company owns an extensive regional network with approximately 9,900 route miles of fiber and 219 macro cellular towers. For more information, please visit www.shentel.com.
About Vertical Bridge
Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC is the largest private owner and operator of communications infrastructure and locations in the United States, with a portfolio of more than 500,000 sites, including over 11,000 owned and master-leased towers and the nation's largest and tallest collection of broadcast tower sites. The Company's portfolio spreads across all 50 states and Puerto Rico and is comprised of towers, rooftops, billboards, utility attachments, convenience stores and other locations in support of wireless network deployments. In addition to colocation, Vertical Bridge offers build-to-suit, edge data centers and in-building wireless network solutions.
Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Vertical Bridge was founded in 2014 and is led by a senior management team with over 400 years of collective experience in tower infrastructure and related sectors. Vertical Bridge became the first tower company in the world to reach net-zero emissions, maintaining CarbonNeutral® certification since 2020. For more information, please visit www.verticalbridge.com.
Advisors
- Rothschild & Co acted as sole financial advisor to Shentel and Lape Mansfield Nakasian + Gibson, LLC is ...