We advise American Tower on the sale of its Land Under Tower and Rooftop Sites in Australia and New Zealand

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised the Singaporean subsidiary of American Tower, a leading provider of global wireless infrastructure, on the sale of its portfolio of land under third party cellular infrastructure assets in Australia and New Zealand to Waveconn and Connexa. 

American Tower Corporation is one of the largest global REITs and a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multi-tenant communications real estate. Its portfolio includes nearly 148,000 communications sites (excludes India assets sold) and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data centre facilities. 

Waveconn is a developer, owner and operator of neutral host digital infrastructure assets. It currently owns and operates approximately 1,400 tower and rooftop sites in Australia, with many more sites actively under development. Waveconn is owned by OMERS Infrastructure, a global leader in infrastructure investing with approximately CAD36 billion assets under management. 

Connexa is New Zealand’s largest specialist mobile tower infrastructure company. It operates a nationwide portfolio of more than 2,400 mobile sites and provides services to MNOs, Telecommunication Service Providers and enterprise and government organisations. Connexa is owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a leading global investor across multiple asset classes with approximately $256 billion in net assets. 

Under the transaction, Waveconn will acquire the Australian portfolio and Connexa will acquire the New Zealand portfolio. The portfolios comprise ground interests at critical mobile telecommunications infrastructure sites across each territory, including land under mobile towers and building rooftops. 

The Norton Rose Fulbright team advised on all aspects of the transaction, including drafting and negotiating key transaction documents for the competitive process and undertaking a fulsome vendor legal due diligence process. 

Completion of the transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The sales are expected to complete later in the year or early 2025. 

Norton Rose Fulbright partners Jeremy Wickens and Adrian Jones commented:

“We were pleased to bring together a multi-disciplinary team of partners and other lawyers to help American Tower undertake this important sale of its portfolio of mobile telecommunications infrastructure sites in Australia and New Zealand.” 

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by partners Adrian Jones and Jeremy Wickens and supported by partners Bernard O’Shea, Chris Patten, Alexandra Shields and Martyn Taylor; special counsels Dietrich Marquardt, Hamish McCormack, Sally-Ann Rowland and Rohan Sridhar; senior associates James Dickie and Sarah Gonski; associates Jack Abrehart, Wilson Au, Wes Hodgson and Charles Smith; and graduate Krissy Bates.