A&O advising American Tower on its strategic partnership with CDPQ

This follows on from A&O’s role advising American Tower on its acquisition in January 2021 of Telxius Towers from Telefonica S.A., comprising 31,000 communications sites across Europe and Latin America, establishing ATC Europe as one of the largest independent communications infrastructure providers in Europe. 

American Tower is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a global portfolio of approximately 187,000 communications sites. The partnership allows both parties to access growth trends in select European markets as 5G deployments and demand for communications infrastructure accelerate, and will see American Tower retain operational control and day-to-day oversight of ATC Europe, while CDPQ will have representation on ATC Europe’s Board of Directors.

Commenting on the partnership, co-head of A&O’s Global Infrastructure Group Sara Pickersgill said: “It is particularly pleasing to work on large transformational deals such as this one that allow our clients to meet their strategic goals and accelerate their future growth. This transaction will help our client American Tower grow its platform in highly attractive European telecoms markets such as Germany and Spain and creates a framework for future expansion.”

The A&O team was led by partner Sara Pickersgill supported by senior associates Emma Shelston and Hannah Brown. Antitrust advice was provided by partner Dominic Long and senior associate David Weaver. Tax advice was provided by partner Vimal Tilakapala and counsel Gareth Banfield.