Fundraising

Goldman, Stonepeak invest in wireless infra

Vertical Bridge has secured an additional $470m in equity commitments including from GS Infrastructure Partners and Stonepeak.

-

Florida-based Vertical Bridge Holdings, a real estate investment trust (REIT) focusing on the acquisition of wireless communications towers in the US, has secured additional commitments from existing investors as well as from Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners in a second round of fundraising, the firm said in a statement.

With over $470 million raised in the second-round capital raise, Vertical Bridge now has a total of $750 million in equity commitments. Existing investors that participated in this round are Digital Bridge Holdings and private equity firm The Jordan Company, according to the statement.

Vertical Bridge did not disclose the size of each commitment. In an e-mailed response, however, Stonepeak confirmed that it had committed $150 million. Goldman Sachs did not respond to a request for comment.

“Vertical Bridge now has over $750 million of committed equity, and alongside our existing $270 million senior credit facility, we have over $1 billion of immediately investable capital to fund our growth,” the firm’s chief executive and co-founder Alexander Gellman said.

Based in Boca Raton, Vertical Bridge was founded in 2014 by Digital Bridge Holdings, a communications infrastructure platform, which was in turn formed in 2013 by Ben Jenkins, formerly of the Blackstone Group and Marc Ganzi, former founder and chief executive of Global Tower Partners.

Vertical Bridge focuses on owning, operating and managing telecommunications towers, rooftops and site locations across the US. To date, it has closed 23 acquisitions, including four deals completed since October 1.

GS Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs’ primary vehicle for investing directly in infrastructure, has approximately $10 billion in aggregate assets under management. It is managed by Goldman Sachs’ merchant banking division.

Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners is a New York-based private equity firm specialising in North American middle-market infrastructure and manages $1.7 billion in assets. The firm invests primarily in energy, power and renewables, transportation, utilities, water and communications.