MEXICO CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Trust I (“MMIT I”) (BMV: FIMMCK) today announced the formation of Mexico Tower Partners (“MTP”), a joint venture that owns and manages a portfolio of wireless telecommunications towers with operations across Mexico. Based in Mexico City, MTP manages more than 550 towers and is Mexico’s second largest independent telecommunications tower business.
MTP is a 50/50 joint venture between Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund (“MMIF”) and Digital Bridge, an independent tower operator. MMIF and Digital Bridge have merged their existing telecommunications tower portfolios to create MTP.
“We are pleased to be partnering with Digital Bridge to form MTP. Digital Bridge’s strong expertise and capabilities in the tower space are complementary to our own. The combination of our existing portfolios creates greater scale and enables us to further penetrate the market and to diversify our customer base” said Jonathan Davis Arzac, Chairman, MMIF. “Digital Bridge management is comprised of experienced industry veterans who will manage our combined portfolios and seek further opportunities to expand our operations in Mexico. We look forward to working with them.”
MMIF’s tower business was formed in October 2011 when MMIF and Global Tower Partners (“GTP”) acquired a portfolio of 199 towers in Mexico from Telefonica. GTP was sold to American Tower in September 2013. GTP’s Mexican towers were carved out of that transaction.
“We believe that the wireless tower industry in Mexico presents attractive opportunities for investors given the low levels of current coverage, increasing demand driven by the popularity of smart phones and other data-intensive wireless devices and current plans of local carriers to continue to deploy newer wireless technologies. Further, Mexico’s telecommunication reforms are expected to result in more opportunities and a more competitive environment for new entrants. We are confident that MTP is well placed to capitalize on these trends,” added Davis Arzac.
About Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund
Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund (MMIF) is Macquarie Group’s first managed fund in Latin America, and is the first peso-denominated fund focused solely on investment opportunities in Mexican infrastructure projects. MMIF targets investments across infrastructure asset classes that include roads and rail, airports, ports, water and wastewater, energy and utilities, as well as social and communications infrastructure.
MMIF comprises two trusts, Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Trust I and Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Trust II, and is managed by Macquarie México Infrastructure Management, S.A. de C.V. which operates within the Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets division of Macquarie Group.
About Macquarie Group
Macquarie Group (Macquarie) is a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services. Macquarie’s main business focus is making returns by providing a diversified range of services to clients. Macquarie acts on behalf of institutional, corporate and retail clients and counterparties around the world. Founded in 1969, Macquarie operates in more than 70 office locations in 28 countries. Macquarie employs approximately 13,900 people and has assets under management of over US$396 billion (as of March 31, 2014).
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, a division of Macquarie, is a leading global alternative asset manager specializing in investments across infrastructure, real estate, agriculture and energy. Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets manages 49 funds with US$105 billion of assets under management across 25 countries (as of December 31, 2013).