HICL Infrastructure acquires 40% stake in Aotearoa Towers

Infrastructure investor HICL has agreed to purchase a 40% stake in Kiwi passive mobile tower infrastructure owner Aotearoa Towers from Vodafone New Zealand.

HICL said on Monday that following completion of the transaction, Aotearoa Towers will represent approximately 7% of the group's portfolio by value and was expected to take its portfolio weighting in digital communications infrastructure to roughly 9%.

The FTSE 250-listed firm also noted that the transaction, a carve-out of Vodafone NZ's passive mobile tower infrastructure, will create New Zealand's largest independent tower company, with 1,484 wholly-owned towers covering 98% of the country's population. Aotearoa Towers will own and operate the passive tower infrastructure, while Vodafone NZ will retain responsibility for the 'active' telecommunications equipment mounted on the towers.

HICL added that its "strategic and highly attractive digital infrastructure acquisition" comes alongside the acquisition of a further 40% stake by Northleaf Capital Partners, with Vodafone NZ retaining an indirect equity interest of 20% in Aotearoa Towers.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com