Japan's SoftBank Group plans to form a infrastructure joint venture with Australia’s Lendlease Group to build and manage cellular sites across the U.S.
The companies have allocated an initial $US400 million to fund the acquisition and strategic restructure of approximately 8,000 existing telecom sites, including rooftops and other structures, across the United States.
The aim is to create a geographically diverse portfolio of rooftop and tower assets through both a development and an acquisition-based strategy. Lendlease and SoftBank have each committed $US200 million equity, and as growth occurs, will look to introduce capital partners.
The joint venture, to be known as 'Lendlease Towers', will focus on partnering with major US carriers to roll out further phases of their infrastructure expansion plans to meet growing demand for data.
Lendlease Towers will target $US5 billion of telecom infrastructure assets over the medium term. Lendlease has been appointed the joint venture manager, asset manager and development manager.
Denis Hickey, CEO, Lenlease
I am pleased to announce the establishment of an infrastructure vehicle focused on the US telco sector, which continues to experience unprecedented growth in data usage as the world moves to becoming more connected. Consistent with our strategy of focusing on growing demand for infrastructure, we've identified the telco infrastructure sector as an opportunity to deploy our integrated business model.
