Sarasota, Fla. -- Pinnacle Holdings Inc., a
communications-tower holding company, will issue 5.3 million shares of its common stock in
a secondary public offering aimed at raising more than $200 million.
About 5.3 million shares will be issued by the company and
2.7 million by existing shareholders, Pinnacle said. Given the stock's closing price
of $37 per share on Jan. 5, the offering could bring the company $196 million. Pinnacle
would not receive any proceeds from the sale of stock by existing shareholders.
Pinnacle, which owns or manages over 3,850 sites throughout
the country used by wireless-telecommunications companies, including wireless cable
television providers, said it will also issue about 1.2 million shares for underwriter
overallotments. Those additional shares could increase the take to roughly $240 million.
Pinnacle will use the proceeds of the offering to repay
debt.
The offering and the subsequent repayment of debt would put
Pinnacle's net debt to cash flow ratio at 6.2 times -- one of the lowest among
high-yield issuers in the tower sector -- CIBC Oppenheimer Corp. analyst Jim Ballan said
in a report.
Ballan expects the equity offering to be a positive for
Pinnacle, and reiterated his "buy" rating for the company's senior discount
notes.
Pinnacle went public in February at about $16 per share and
has climbed as high as $42 each in the past 10 months.
The company has been on an acquisition spree in the past
few years, and now has antenna sites in such major cities as Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.;
Boston; Chicago; Houston; Los Angeles; New Orleans; New York; and Orlando and Tampa, Fla.
As of Dec. 24, the company completed 345 acquisitions acquiring 3,032 communications
sites, including 1,591 owned sites, 583 managed sites and 858 leased sites and constructed
100 towers. Pinnacle also has agreements or letters of intent to acquire 766 additional
communications sites, including 405 owned locations and 361 managed ones.
As part of the secondary offering, ABRY Broadcast Partners
II L.P., a Boston private-equity firm, will reduce its equity stake in Pinnacle from 15
percent to 9 percent.
Underwriters include Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown; Goldman,
Sachs & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co.; Raymond James & Associates Inc.; Salomon
Smith Barney; and Banc of America Securities.
