back

18th March 2002

CELLSTRUCTURES AGRESSIVE EXPANSION CONTINUES WITH £20 MILLION ACQUISITION OF ANGLIAN WATER PORTFOLIO

Cellstructures International, the Reading-based mobile telecom mast operator and outsourcing company, today announced the acquisition of Ambury Investments from awg plc, the parent company of Anglian Water.

This acquisition broadens the operations of Cellstructures from outsourcing to estate management. Cellstructures will take over the management and revenue of 500 existing leases with telecom operators and will also have access to another 7,000 properties where sites can be hosted.

Cellstructures will continue to grow the portfolio and will increase site sharing, through outsourcing site roll-outs by operators, taking ownership of the mast itself and assisting operators in managing their networks efficiently. The geographic area covered by the network covers around 10% of the UK population and, together with the LE Group alliance, brings a strong South East focus to Cellstructures’ portfolio and operations.

Anwar Bajwa, Chairman & CEO of Cellstructures, commented:

"This acquisition brings Cellstructures a portfolio of assets with a 20-year proven history of serving the telecom sector’s requirements in the South East. We are now able to focus on substantial contracts/alliances and managed/owned portfolios which will enable faster deployment of outsourced network for customers and improved service and deliverability."

The deal was arranged for Cellstructures by Penta Capital, an independent private equity firm that has a minority stake in the group, supported by Bank of Scotland’s Telecoms & Media team, management and existing shareholders. Steven Scott of Penta Capital commented:

"We have worked closely with the AWG team and their advisers over the last few months to deliver the transaction and the team at Cellstructures will now work to grow the portfolio over the coming months. We believe that Cellstructures can now deliver a solution to operators which will meet their needs for network efficiency and optimisation while controlling their capital expenditure."

Stuart Gibson, Head of Telecoms & Media at Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking said:

"Our knowledge and experience of the tower market over many years enabled us to structure the funding package to facilitate all parties interests. We believe that transactions such as this will become more commonplace amongst portfolio owners and are delighted to support Cellstructures International in securing this next step in their evolution."

awg plc were advised by Close Brothers. Simon Willis, corporate finance director, said:

"We identified Cellstructures and Penta Capital at the outset as a potential buyer and worked closely to meet the objectives of all concerned. Cellstructures and its shareholders showed a good understanding of the vendor needs and structured the deal to leave a strong incentive to work together going forward, which we believe will set the benchmark for other utilities with similar assets and objectives. From a Close Brothers perspective, it is a key part of our strategy to build relationships with larger corporates through middle market deals of this nature, which leverage our sector expertise, so we are delighted to have helped AWG structure such a successful transaction, particularly in today's difficult environment for telecoms deals."