Brazil’s Oi wraps up towers, properties transfer to SBA Communications

Brazilian telecoms operator Oi completed the transfer of a real estate special purpose vehicle (SPE), handling towers and properties, to telecom infrastructure company SBA.

The deal was announced in November as part of the telco's restructuring drive. The assets are valued at 40mn reais (US$6.92mn).

SBA is one of Oi's creditors in the company's judicial recovery process.

Last October, Oi closed a similar transfer of towers and properties deal to American Tower, involving 41mn reais.

That same month, another Latin America-focused operator, Millicom, closed a major sale-and-leaseback agreement with SBA involving roughly 7,000 of its towers in Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Worth US$975mn, that deal also included a build-to-suit agreement under which SBA will deploy a further 2,500 sites for Millicom’s lease.

Winston & Strawn was the legal advisor to Millicom, while JP Morgan and Lazard Freres acted as financial advisors. Goldman Sachs acted as financial advisor to SBA, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as legal advisor.

That transaction is expected to close in mid-2025.

Divestments

In August 2022, as part of Oi’s first judicial reorganization, DigitalBridge’s telecoms tower subsidiary Highline won a bidding process for the acquisition of 8,000 towers related to Oi’s fixed operation, agreeing to pay 1.7bn reais.

Previously, in November 2020, Highline paid 1.06bn reais for 637 mobile phone towers and 222 passive infrastructure points, installed in shopping malls, hotels and other locations, belonging to Oi.