New boy Brazil Infrastructure Company aims at 1,000 towers in 3-4 years

Brazil Infrastructure Company (BIC) plans to own and operate up to 1,000 telecom towers in the country in around three years, depending on market demand, CEO Javier Rodriguez Garcia told BNamericas.

The company is currently defining with investors what its corporate and shareholding structure will look like, while awaiting a taxpayer corporate company license (CNPJ) to officially debut in the local market.

The expectation is that the CNPJ will be obtained by the end of this month, founder and CTO Antonio Alvarez Modrono told BNamericas.

Among BIC’s potential investors and shareholders are Brazilian funds Monte Capital and G5 Partners, together with funds from the US, the UK and Mexico, the executives said.

The move marks the entry of a new player into the contested and increasingly consolidated segment of telecom towers in Brazil.

The bet on a new company in the sector came from the assessment that there is still a lot of mobile infrastructure to be installed in Brazil, especially in remote and rural areas, and that the most well-established players in the sector are not adequately meeting the demand, said Rodriguez Garcia.

“There are two main focuses. One is the traditional systems with the operators, and this is the main focus. But there is a very strong niche which is private 5G and, in the future, private 6G networks, especially for agribusiness, mining, all these fields that need that coverage that operators often have a hard time getting there,” said the CEO.

Graduated as an engineer in Madrid, Garcia has held several positions in the telecoms industry and is a former CTO of Telefónica’s Brazilian subsidiary Vivo.

Between June 2013 and April 2015, he presided over the consulting board of Brasil Towers Company (BTC), having later left the company due to disagreements over the management model, he said.

INVESTMENTS

The capex outlook has already been presented to investors as part of a structured business plan, initially for five years.

By the end of 2025, the expectation is to own 300 sites in Brazil and in a second phase 700, before reaching 1,000 in 3-4 years.

The final numbers will depend on demand of operators and companies, stressed Garcia.

For this year, the idea is to be able to close with the first 18 sites with capex of less than US$1mn.

To face players such as American Tower, Highline, SBA, IHS and QMC Telecom, which together account for roughly 70% of the tower infrastructure in Brazil, BIC bets on partnerships, on good market knowledge and the relationship of its executives, and on faster deliveries than those of established towercos, said Garcia.

Macrotowers, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells will make up BIC's core portfolio. Eventually, fiber may also enter the package to serve operators.

The business model will essentially be outsourcing, the executives say, with the towerco aiming to be an asset-light company, notably from a workforce perspective.

BIC does not intend to build the sites itself but to hire the services from specialized companies in the sector. Tower providers, civil construction and energy will all be outsourced, they said.

According to Alvarez Modrono, this model might imply a greater expenditure upfront but represents a more stable financial structure in the medium and long term.

There are ongoing conversations with at least 10 tower companies as well as with six infrastructure firms. The executives also claim to have positive talks underway with carriers.

At the moment, the acquisition of already built sites and of existing tower companies is not on the radar – but everything will depend on the position of shareholders, said Garcia.