Linklaters advises international lenders and investors on EUR 7.7bn financing platform for GD Towers

Linklaters has advised an international syndicate of bank lenders and private placement investors on the establishment of a new rated common terms agreement platform and a combined migration and private placement issuance of EUR 7.7bn for GD Towers, one of Europe’s largest independent tower companies.

GD Towers operates approximately 43,500 sites across Germany and Austria and is the third largest TowerCo in Europe by number of sites. The business is underpinned by long-term master lease agreements with Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Magenta Telekom in Austria and provides critical passive mobile network infrastructure to mobile network operators, broadcasters and emergency services.

The transaction involved the implementation of an infrastructure-style capital structure on the basis of a secured and covenanted long-term financing platform. Under the new platform, existing syndicated bank facilities are migrated and complemented by multiple tranches of long-dated, investment grade private placement notes issued to US, UK and European institutional investors.

The Linklaters team was led by partners Alexander Schlee, Przemyslaw Lipin and Elisabeth Johnson, and managing associates Sebastian Witte and Lasse Petersen Weis, supported by associates Soumya Gupta and Durlav Nayak.