FRONTIER Tower Associates Philippines Inc., a common telecommunications tower operator in the Philippines backed by private equity firm KKR, is acquiring competitor PH1 Holding FZ-LLC.
Frontier Tower is acquiring 100 percent of PH1 Holding FZ-LLC, the United Arab Emirates-based parent company of Communication and Renewable Energy Infrastructure CREI Phils Inc., which operates 400 telecom towers with a colocation ratio of 1.25x in the Philippines.
The transaction will complement Frontier Tower’s own 5,000 towers nationwide.
The transaction also follows Frontier Tower’s acquisition of 3,529 telco towers from Globe Telecom Inc. for P45 billion in July this year.
The sale is expected to boost Frontier Tower’s prospects in benefitting from the projected 1.97 percent compounded growth of the common carrier tower between 2024 and 2029, as estimated by research firm Mordor Intelligence.
The common tower market is expected to reach 28,950 units by then from this year’s 26,260 units which is necessary for the rapidly expanding mobile penetration rate.
