CCI Crown Castle Inc

By Maria Armental 

Crown Castle International Corp. has reached an agreement to buy LTS Group Holdings LLC in a roughly $7.1 billion deal that would double its fiber-optic footprint and add key Northeast metropolitan markets.

LTS Group, the holding company of Lightower Fiber Networks, is currently owned by private-equity firm Berkshire Partners, Pamlico Capital and other investors.

Houston-based Crown Castle said it expects to raise its annual dividend rate based on the acquisition's projected boost.

In the first full year of ownership, Crown Castle expects Lightower to contribute $850 million to $870 million in site-rental revenue; $510 million to $530 million in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization; and $465 million to $485 million in adjusted funds from operations before financing costs.

The deal, first reported by Reuters, would give Crown Castle rights to some 60,000 route miles of fiber on 23 of the top 25 most populous domestic markets, the company said Tuesday.

Crown Castle owns portfolios of cell towers, which it then rents to carriers.

Its stock, inactive in recent extended trading, closed down 0.18% at $96.64. Through Tuesday's closing, the stock was up 11% for the year.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2017 18:39 ET (22:39 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.