Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a sovereign wealth fund, today announced that it has acquired a significant minority stake and committed up to $500m to invest in EdgePoint Infrastructure, a Southeast Asia-focused tower company and a portfolio company of Digital Colony Partners II, the flagship private equity fund of DigitalBridge Group (formerly Colony Capital).
ADIA’s $500m investment will support EdgePoint Infrastructure’s future growth, which will include both acquisitions and the development of new towers.
Expansion To-Date – EdgePoint Infrastructure
Since its formation in late 2020, EdgePoint Infrastructure has amassed a portfolio of 10.0k+ sites, primarily through acquisition. Specifically, EdgePoint Infrastructure has made a total of five acquisitions – two in Indonesia and three in Malaysia, with towers acquired from:
- Indosat Ooredoo: 4.2k towers in Indonesia through a sale-and-leaseback transaction
- Centratama: 4.7k towers and DAS sites in Indonesia by gaining a controlling stake in the company
- Asiaspace: 178 towers in Malaysia by purchasing the company’s towers
- Undisclosed: ~1.0k+ towers in Malaysia through two transactions that have not yet been disclosed
Malaysia Towers Map – EdgePoint Infrastructure
Future Expansion Possibilities – EdgePoint Infrastructure
With ADIA’s $500m investment supporting future growth at EdgePoint Infrastructure, we highlight expansion possibilities for the company both in-market and in new countries.
Tower Bersama
Tower Bersama has been named in press reports from Bloomberg noting that the company’s two largest shareholders, Saratoga Group and Provident Capital Partners, are “exploring the potential sale” of the company. Recently, Tower Bersama’s whole-company market capitalization has been more than $5.0bn.
Overall, Tower Bersama’s portfolio comprised 16.4k telecommunications towers in Indonesia as of Q1 2021. Indeed, an acquisition of Tower Bersama by EdgePoint would make the combined business the largest independent tower company in Indonesia.
Philippines
EdgePoint Infrastructure could also have its sights set on towers in the Philippines as part of its Southeast Asia expansion. Notably, EdgePoint Infrastructure’s current CEO Suresh Sidhu, was formerly the CEO of edotco Group. At edotco Group, Sidhu signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for towers with Globe Telecom, a Philippines wireless carrier.
Build-to-Suit (BTS) Agreements
EdgePoint Infrastructure has also executed build-to-suit (BTS) programs with wireless carriers in Indonesia and will soon extend this to Malaysia. Indeed, EdgePoint Infrastructure specifically notes that funding build-to-suit (BTS) tower agreements is one use for ADIA’s capital.
Strategy – DigitalBridge and ADIA
EdgePoint Infrastructure’s primary focus is to develop, acquire, and operate telecommunications towers in Southeast Asia. Additionally, the company will invest in adjacent digital infrastructure sub-sectors of small cells, distributed antenna systems (DAS), and C-RAN hubs. With the backing of DigitalBridge and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), EdgePoint Infrastructure’s objective is to grow into a scalable regional towers platform, initially in Indonesia and Malaysia.
