American Tower told analysts last week that it could have an interest in the Verizon Wireless towers if the carrier does decide to sell. The tower portfolio is not officially on the market, but Verizon has reportedly hired the same investment bank that helped AT&T and T-Mobile US sell their towers to Crown Castle. Crown Castle was the first company to publicly express interest in the Verizon towers.
Analyst Jennifer Fritzsche of Wells Fargo was one of the analysts who met with American Tower CFO Tom Bartlett last week, and she offered this report: “Bartlett indicated the first place [AMT] wants to do M&A is in the markets it is already in. The gorilla in the room was clearly AMT’s interest in the VZ tower portfolio (~13K towers). While management would not offer many specifics, they did indicate the company could be interested in the portfolio at the right terms and price but it would come down to math and terms of a potential deal.”
Meanwhile analysts at Macquarie Securities are saying that the recent selloff in T-Mobile US shares may have created a buying opportunity. Analyst Kevin Smithen is recommending the shares based on continued strong subscriber growth and improving network quality. He is not basing his recommendation on the prospects of a successful takeover by either Iliad or Dish Networks. Iliad has already bid for T-Mobile one, but was rejected. Macquarie is telling investors that even if new Iliad or Dish bids materialize, it does not think T-Mobile will accept either one of them.
Macquarie Securities also notes significant improvements in T-Mobile’s network quality. “While suburban coverage continues to be an issue, we believe that T-Mo is now on par with VZ in most urban markets,” wrote Smithen in a research note.
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