Macquarie Communications and Infrastructure Group (MCG) announced the sale of its 28.7% stake in Global Tower Partners for US$363 million ($413 million). MCG said the proceeds of the sale to Macquarie Infrastructure Partners (MIG) would be used repay convertible debt.
CEO Scott Davies said that while the company had a sound portfolio of businesses and was well positioned both operationally and financially, the performance was not reflected in the recent security price.
"MCG's boards and management acknowledge that there is security holder concern about possible dilution arising from early redemption of its exchangeable bonds," he said.
"MCG has concluded that a prudent course of action is to devote capital resources to address this concern and has reviewed its portfolio of businesses in that context," Mr Davies said.
Mr Davies said that the decision to divest Global Tower Partners was taken because funding its ongoing expansion would require further capital that MCG could not support.
"Divesting GTP is therefore regarded as the best solution for both MCG's security holders and for GTP itself," Mr Davies said.
The financial close of this transaction was expected to be on 12 September 2008.
MCG also announced that it plans a partial cash tender offer for $725 million 2012 and US$200 million 2013 exchangeable bonds.
At 1056 AEST, shares in MCG were down 6c to $3.25.