Brookfield, DigitalBridge to buy 51% of Deutsche Telekom’s towers business

• Deutsche Telekom retains a 49% stake in GD Towers with significant minority protection rights
• The deal has an enterprise value of $17.5 billion
• It is expected to close toward Q4 2022

Deutsche Telekom this week agreed to sell a 51% stake of its towers business GD Towers to Brookfield Asset Management and DigitalBridge. The deal has an enterprise value of $17.5 billion on a cash and debt free basis and is expected to close toward Q4 2022. The deal marks the successful conclusion of Deutsche Telekom’s strategic review of its towers business announced at its May 2021 Capital Markets Day.

GD Towers operates more than 40,000 sites across Germany and Austria and has approximately 800 employees. It generated $1.1 billion of pro forma revenues in 2021. Pro forma adjust EBITDA AL 2021 amounted to $640 million.

DigitalBridge is a dedicated digital infrastructure firm headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. It invests across five key verticals: data centers, fiber networks, small cells, edge infrastructure and cell towers. It has $47 billion in assets under management as of March 2022.

The partnership between DigitalBridge, Brookfield and Deutsche Telekom will provide both expertise and additional capital to accelerate GD Towers’ plans for enhanced value creation in both the core towers business and in fast-growing adjacent segments and through M&A. The current GD Towers leadership team will continue running the business after closing.

“The partnership being formed today is about building the next generation digital infrastructure champion of Europe,” said Marc Ganzi, CEO of DigitalBridge. “The combination of Deutsche Telekom’s leading mobile network and market position, alongside one of the largest real asset managers in the world in Brookfield, combined with the digital infrastructure domain expertise of DigitalBridge, creates a team of unmatched capabilities to support GD Towers as it grows to meet the evolving network demands of enterprises and consumers across Europe.”

“We’re delighted to be partnering with Deutsche Telekom and DigitalBridge to expand our presence in the European telecom infrastructure sector,” said Sam Pollock, managing partner at Brookfield and CEO infrastructure. “This represents a great opportunity to invest in a highly attractive tower portfolio, with highly contracted cash flows and strong upside potential. Brookfield is already a leading global infrastructure investor, with approximately 200,000 telecom tower and rooftop sites under management globally. We hope to bring that experience and expertise to this new partnership, for the benefit of our customers in Germany, Austria and beyond.”