Financing secure for Teletower Dominicana deal

The Dominican arm of Phoenix Tower International (PTI), a Blackstone portfolio company, has reached financial close on its acquisition of Teletower Dominicana through a $45 million credit facility with Scotiabank . 

Scotiabank acted as lead arranger in the five-year facility provided to PTI subsidiary Phoenix Tower Dominicana and as financial advisor on the acquisition. 

According to a report by Tower Exchange, which independently monitors tower development and ownership globally, Teletower Dominicana owned 192 tower telecom towers as of Q1 2015.  

Along with acquiring Teletower assets, funds from the facility are earmarked for new tower development and “other corporate purposes”, according to a company statement. 

PTI chief executive Dagan Kasavana reckons the credit facility with Scotiabank is part of a plan to help the company expand in the Dominican Republic.

PTI was founded in Boca Raton, Florida, on October 2013. It is owned by funds managed through Blackstone's Tactical Opportunities business.  In September last year, the company acquired American Tower's Panamanian business, and with it approximately 60 tower assets. 

In May, the company secured a $32.15 million credit facility to finance wireless infrastructure development across Costa Rica and Panama. The transaction was led by Banco General, with participation from Towerbank and Metrobank. PTI followed on by  acquiring Brazil's T4U holdings in June, allowing it to secure an additional 529 wireless infrastructure assets along with a pipeline of another 250 towers under construction. 

The company is also set to acquire rights to more than 600 wireless tower sites, including the exclusive right to manage and operate the sites from T-Mobile via the company's local US subsidiaries.