The Russian Towers attract additional $100 M from new investors

The Russian Towers company announced the second investment round of $100 M. Attracted investment will be directed at telecommunications towers fleet expanding, reports Cnews.ru portal. Investors-founders of the company, UFG Private Equity (fund UFG Private Equity II, LP) and The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) subsidize additional $15 M on a new investment round. Investors’ pool including the Macquarie Renaissance Infrastructure Fund (MRIF) will invest $85 M, $50 M of them invested by the fund and another $20 M invested by ADM Capital.

New investors will acquire the shares of Russian Towers, issued in the additional shares. The parties agreed not to disclose the commercial terms of the transaction.

The Russian Towers company is the operator and developer of telecommunications towers in Russia. The company was founded in 2009 and already has a fleet of over 300 towers in operation or under construction in more than 20 regions of Russia. The volume of the initial investment was not disclosed. The company leases the independent segments to accommodate the equipment on each tower to several telecom operators at a time, and already has agreements with all leading Russian mobile operators. The company plans to increase the fleet to 1,000 towers in the next 3-4 years with new investment. Increase in the number of towers is planned both by the construction of new and purchasing existing telecommunications towers from the mobile operators.

UFG Private Equity managing director Dominic Reed commented on the deal: We welcome the MRIF and ADM Capital as our partners and look forward to continuing the successful development of the Russian Towers. Such companies as Russian Towers contribute to the economic growth in Russia. An independent Management Company provides the necessary infrastructure for mobile operators and allows them to increase operational efficiency, eliminate gaps in 2G network coverage and, what is more important, to quickly deploy 3G network requiring the infrastructure of higher density. Both our business partners in the Bank and we, UFG, are satisfied with the development of Russian Towers and look confidently to the future in anticipation of further growth in demand on the exchange of telecommunications services data in Russia and the CIS countries, which explains our decision to increase the initial investment in this company.

MRIF CEO Damian Secen said: Tower business investing in Russia is very attractive. Mobile penetration in the country is very high, and this requires reliable network coverage. The Russian Towers business model has proven successful in other countries and we highly appreciate the perspectives of our investment in the growing Russian market.