Crown Castle To Divest Australian Unit; Expects Net Proceeds Of Approx. $1.3 Bln

(RTTNews) - Crown Castle International Corp. (CCI) announced a definitive agreement to sell its Australian subsidiary to a consortium of investors led by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets for an aggregate purchase price of approximately A$2.0 billion in cash, or approximately US$1.6 billion.

The Australian subsidiary, CCAL, is 77.6% owned by Crown Castle. Upon consummation of the deal, Crown Castle expects to receive net proceeds of approximately US$1.3 billion. Crown Castle expects to use the net proceeds to finance its previously announced acquisition of Sunesys and for general corporate purposes, including the repayment of certain of its indebtedness.

"The sale of CCAL allows us to redeploy capital towards our growing small cell networks, which we expect will be accretive to our long-term AFFO and dividend per share growth rates," said Ben Moreland, Crown Castle's President and CEO.

The company noted that CCAL was expected to contribute approximately US$58 million to US$63 million to Crown Castle's previously provided full year 2015 Outlook for Adjusted Funds from Operations of $1.450 billion to $1.465 billion.