Dorda has advised the DigitalBridge Group on its joint acquisition with Brookfield Infrastructure and its institutional partners of a 51% stake in GD Towers from Deutsche Telekom. E+H and Latham and Watkins advised the bidding consortium of GIP, KKR, and Stonepeak. Reportedly, Allen & Overy and Morgan Lewis also advised DigitalBridge, Freshfields and Weil, Gotshal & Manges advised Brookfield Infrastructure, while, on the sell side, Gleiss Lutz, Noerr, CMS, Schoenherr, Cuatrecasas, and Freshfields advised Deutsche Telekom on the deal.
Closing is expected in late 2022, pending regulatory approval. According to Dorda, the transaction values GD Towers, the mobile telecommunications tower business of Deutsche Telekom, at EUR 17.5 billion, on a consolidated basis, including the assumption of net debt.
According to the firm, “GD Towers is Germany’s largest tower company, owning 7,000 towers and communication sites in Austria and owning and operating over 33,000 towers and communication sites in Germany. GD Towers is led by an independent management team with decades of European tower company experience and a track record of delivering consistent growth and stable cash flows. GD Towers’ high-quality portfolio is supported by an anchor tenancy agreement with Deutsche Telekom, which will retain a minority 49% ownership stake in GD Towers following this transaction.”
“The partnership being formed today is about building the next generation digital infrastructure champion of Europe,” said DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi. “The combination of Deutsche Telekom’s leading mobile network and market position, alongside one of the largest real asset managers in the world in Brookfield, combined with the digital infrastructure domain expertise of DigitalBridge, creates a team of unmatched capabilities to support GD Towers as it grows to meet the evolving network demands of enterprises and consumers across Europe.”
Dorda’s team included Partners Andreas Mayr, Gunnar Pickl, Thomas Angermair, Stefan Artner, Christoph Brogyanyi, Heinrich Kuehnert, Bernhard Mueller, Veit Oehlberger, Nino Tlapak, and Paul Doralt, Counsel Andreas Seling, Attorneys Patricia Backhausen, Florian Nikolai, Florina Thenmayer, Julia Haumer-Moerzinger, Alexandra Ciarnau, Julia Haunold, Magdalena Nitsche, and Stanislav Nekrasov, and Associates Philipp Paertan, Isabel Maurer, Philipp Fedan, Michael Hardt, Angelika Holzer, Mirko Marjanovic, Vivien Lux, and Jia Zhou.
E+H's team included Partners Marco Steiner, Karolin Andreewitch-Wallner, Judith Feldner, Philipp Schrader, and Ulrike Sehrschoen, Senior Associate Johannes Feilmair, and Associates Laura Glibusic, Titus Kahr, and Anna Talos.
Editor's Note: After this article was published, Allen & Overy confirmed its involvement on behalf of DigitalBridge.
