Brazil Tower Company Announces First Close of $104 Million Debt Financing to Support Doubling Portfolio from 600 towers to 1,200 towers in next 2 years

MIAMI, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Brazil Tower Company ("BTC") a Brazil-based independent tower company recently closed on $79 million USD of a $104 million USD long-term senior secured debt financing with three international lenders led by Cordiant Capital of Montreal, Canada.  The company expects to close on the remaining $25 million of financing during Q3 of this year.  The use of proceeds is to fund construction of the company's contracted pipeline and refinance BTC's existing debt.  Wisteria Court, an emerging markets focused boutique investment bank in New York, advised BTC on the transaction.

"We are very excited about the growth we are realizing in Brazil through new tower development and new collocations and amendments.  Our backlog of new towers and pipeline for growth is the strongest we have seen since 2015," said Tom Staz, BTC's Chief Financial Officer and a partner at 1848 Capital Partners in Miami, BTC's primary equity sponsor.  "With the support of our new debt facility and a large inventory of customer orders, we will continue to strategically rollout new tower sites over the next 18 - 24 months to double the size of our tower portfolio and triple the cash flows of the business."

"We are very excited about the Brazilian telecommunications market.  The market is at an inflection point in its development, and we expect to see continued investment and growth for telecom operators and neutral host infrastructure.  With the proliferation of smartphones and over-the-top services, network operators are expanding and densifying their networks rapidly to keep pace with burgeoning growth in data demand.  Additionally, the positive zoning regime, low fixed broadband penetration and national coverage requirements present a very strong investment case for credit and equity investors," said Jonathan Loiacono, who works with Cordiant Capital.

"BTC is very disciplined in its approach to new site selection.  We focus on highly trafficked and defensible tower locations that will benefit from strong double-digit organic growth," added Chahram Zolfaghari, Chief Executive Officer of BTC.  "We have achieved consistent year-over-year growth in asset count and cash flow and look forward to accelerating that growth with our new round of financing."

"We are pleased that three EM focused international financial institutions have decided to be important partners in BTC's next phase of growth.  Together with an existing equity investment from an important regional development bank and 1848, BTC has strong international sponsors which speaks highly of the team and the important development impact of BTC in Brazil," added Jay Tom, Managing Partner and Founder of Wisteria Court LLC.

About Brazil Tower Company

Brazil Tower Company is a leading privately-held neutral host tower company in Brazil.  BTC's primary business is the leasing of antenna space on multi-tenant communications towers to wireless service providers and radio and television broadcast companies.  BTC has built and operates over 600 wireless towers for the major wireless operators including Telefonica, TIM and Claro.  For more information, please visit braziltowercompany.com.

About Cordiant Capital

Cordiant Capital is an emerging market private credit asset manager founded in 1999.  Cordiant's investment strategy offers capital preservation, low correlation to equity and bond markets, and interest rate cycle protection. Cordiant has made 300+ investments in dozens of countries.  It currently manages $1.6 billion and is in the market with Cordiant VII.  Cordiant primarily invests in telecommunications, infrastructure, agriculture, clean energy and transportation.

SOURCE Brazil Tower Company

Related Links

http://braziltowercompany.com