With a US$10 million investment, IDB Invest will become a minority shareholder in Atis Group, whose majority shareholder is U.S. private equity fund TowerCo Investments LLC. The tower company has approximately 1,000 sites across Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, distributed roughly as follows: 300 in Argentina, 400 in Uruguay and 300 in Paraguay.
Convergencialatina spoke with Atis Group CEO and co-founder Juan Pablo Blanco following the announcement of the new shareholder. IDB Invest’s entry is aimed at strengthening the tower company’s operations in the three countries and capitalizing on the 5G deployment cycle, which is at different stages across the Southern Cone. Paraguay currently offers the greatest growth opportunities, Blanco said.
Atis Group aims to deploy 70 to 100 sites per year, above the regional annual average growth rate of around 6% in the number of sites.