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41m | Melanie Mingas
KKR has invested an undisclosed sum from its infrastructure fund in the parent company of Frontier Tower Associates Philippines (FTAP).
The investment follows a turbulent 20 months for the Philippine tower sector, during which the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has faced several delays in introducing its common tower policy in the country.
Originally scheduled for January 2019, the policy was finalized in June this year, allowing KKR to advance its ambition to build a “leading independent telecommunications tower platform in the Philippines”.
Owned by Pinnacle Towers Ltd, FTAP was one of the first independent TowerCos in the Philippines to obtain a provisional operating license from DICT.
Patrick Tangney, President and CEO of Pinnacle, said: “We are delighted to welcome a global investor of the caliber of KKR to Pinnacle and look forward to benefiting from the company’s expertise in managing telecommunications infrastructure projects throughout the world. world.
“KKR’s investment comes at a crucial time: the Philippines, and Asia in general, is one of the most dynamic and fastest growing mobile markets in the world. Improving the telecommunications infrastructure has become a key priority, especially in our current environment. Together with KKR, we look forward to advancing our goal of providing high-quality telecommunications infrastructure solutions that improve the lives of mobile users in the Philippines and other relevant markets in Asia Pacific. ”
For a tower company with regional ambitions, KKR’s investment will allow FTAP to boost its infrastructure portfolio at a time when Filipino mobile users increasingly demand reliable, data-rich, high-speed, and affordable connectivity, and generally to address the growing demands on telecommunications infrastructure. in and around Southeast Asia.
The deal marks KKR’s second infrastructure investment in the Philippines and its fourth overall investment in the market.
David Luboff, Partner and Head of Asia Pacific Infrastructure at KKR, said: “The telecommunications sector in the Philippines has grown rapidly in recent years amid increasing demand for connectivity. This has led to an imbalance of resources and the need to expand the existing infrastructure to allow operators to provide better service and coverage to their customers. Our investment in Pinnacle reiterates our commitment to address this need and support the Philippines’ transition to a digitally connected nation.
“We look forward to helping the Pinnacle team deliver the benefits of a more digitally enabled economy for the Filipino people, especially in growing regions like Visayas and Mindanao.”
In May, KKR launched Global Technical Realty (GTR), a new billion-dollar data center business with a focus on new facilities across Europe. The following month, the firm made a $ 2.7 billion offer to privatize MasMovil and in September announced a second investment in subsidiaries belonging to Reliance Industries.
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