NEW YORK-American Tower Corp. plans to go public, and it could become the first independent company engaged solely in wireless communications tower site management to do so.
The company, which is headquartered in Webster, Texas, owns approximately 600 towers on 550 sites in 30 states, including 45 of the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas. American Tower Corp. is unrelated to American Tower Systems, which is a subsidiary of American Radio Systems, a publicly traded company.
“To my knowledge, American Tower Corp. would be the first [pure play] in site management to go public,” said Sheldon Moss, manager of the Site Owners and Managers Association. SOMA is part of the Personal Communications Industry Association in Alexandria, Va.
A preliminary prospectus for the planned initial public offering was not yet available last week, according to Montgomery Securities, San Francisco, the lead underwriter.
Preliminary IPO filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission don’t indicate the anticipated number of shares to be sold or the expected price range. However, American Tower’s SEC registration documents said the company plans to use $4.9 million of the net proceeds to repay subordinated debt, $4.5 million to redeem its Series A redeemable preferred stock, and an unspecified amount to repay part of an outstanding bank credit facility.
American Tower was formed in October 1994 by an investor group led by Summit Capital Inc. of Houston and Chase Capital. The investor group acquired Bowen-Smith Corp., established in 1966, which owned 184 communications towers on 175 sites, primarily in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
Within a year after the Bowen-Smith acquisition, American Tower purchased or built at least 75 additional communications towers. By the end of this year, it expects to have constructed as many as 75 additional towers.
In December 1995, American Tower bought 103 towers from CSX Realty Development Corp. In October 1996, it acquired 154 towers from Prime Communications Sites Holding L.L.C. Further acquisitions of towers from other companies also are part of its expansion strategy.
Additionally, the company said in its SEC filings that it plans to expand by promoting collocation, or multiple use by different wireless carriers, of its existing towers and tower sites.
