Philippines telecom giant Globe is reportedly in advanced talks with potential buyers for its tower assets in the country, in a deal that could fetch as much as $1.5 billion.
According to a Bloomberg report on Thursday, Globe Telecom is in discussions with a consortium comprising Stonepeak Partners and local power retailer Manila Electric Co for some of the assets.
The remainder of the 6,000-tower portfolio is being negotiated by another group consisting of buyout firm Partners Group Holding AG and Aboitiz Group. KKR & Co is also interested in the assets, according to the report.
A spokesperson for Globe Telecom declined to comment on the report when contacted by DealStreetAsia, saying it cannot issue a statement in the absence of an official disclosure.
In a filing with the Philippine Stock Exchange dated June 22, 2022, the company clarified that it had no Board approval to proceed and execute any transaction for its tower assets, other than the engagement of the tower companies for its network rollout.
“We have been approached by the different TowerCos given the recent transaction but this is consistent with our typical engagement with them given they are also our vendors,” the Ayala-led telco said in an earlier statement.
Globe has been looking into monetising its tower assets since 2018. The report comes less than three months after Globe’s rival, PLDT, signed a deal to sell thousands of its telecom towers for about $1.47 billion.
Subsidiaries of foreign firms edotco Group and EdgePoint won the auction for 5,907 telecom towers and related passive telecom infrastructure, PLDT earlier said in a stock exchange disclosure.
PLDT put about half of its more than 11,000 telecoms towers up for sale last year to slash operating costs and focus on growing its broadband and mobile internet businesses.
In 2018, the government’s Department of Communications and Information Technology said the country needed to build 50,000 towers in the next few years to be at par with its neighbours.