SBA to Buy AAT for $1 Billion

Posted 17 March 2006 @ 05:09 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) - SBA Communications Corp. said Friday that it agreed to buy AAT Communications Corp., the nation's fifth largest independent wireless tower owner, in a cash and stock deal valued at $1 billion to broaden its ownership of cell phone towers.

Under the agreement, SBA will acquire all outstanding AAT shares for $634 million in cash and about 17.1 million issued shares of SBA stock, which closed Thursday at $21.57 per share.

The deal also calls for SBA to buy back its issued debt. The company has $216.9 million in 9.75 percent senior discount notes and $162.5 million in 8.5 percent senior notes outstanding.

SBA will use $1.1 billion in financing secured from DB Structured Products and JPMorgan Chase to pay for the cash portion and to buy back its notes. The company anticipates carrying about $1.5 billion in total debt as a result.

The transaction will add about 1,855 owned tower sites and 250 revenue-producing managed sites to SBA's holdings, bringing its total to more than 5,300 towers in the United States and its territories.

SBA expects to book a one-time integration charge of about $10 million in 2006, and pro forma revenue of $355.5 million to $381.5 million for the year.

Deutsche Bank Securities and JPMorgan Securities acted at SBA's financial advisers, and Citigroup Global Markets and Lehman Brothers acted as AAT's financial advisers.