Crown Castle co-founder says company could fetch up to $15 billion for fiber assets
By Greg Roumeliotis
(Reuters) — Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)'s co-founder Ted Miller said on Tuesday that the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure company could fetch as much as $15 billion by selling its fiber assets if it let him and his partners join its board of directors.
Miller told Reuters in an interview that he and his team were best positioned to find buyers for the fiber business and help Crown Castle upgrade its tower assets so it can keep up with advances in wireless network technology.
«When you create a company from scratch and take it public, you learn a lot more than when you take over from someone else,» Miller said.
A spokesperson for Crown Castle did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Miller's demands. The Houston-based company said in December it would explore a sale of its fiber business after reaching a deal with hedge fund Elliott Investment Management over shaking up its board.
Miller has told Crown Castle he can help it fetch between $12 billion and $15 billion for its fiber assets and that he has already carried out preparatory work that will save it six months in finding buyers, so it can complete a deal by the end of 2024.
This work, which Miller said he had spent $5 million on, included signing 25 non-disclosure agreements with prospective buyers and identifying more than $1 billion in tax benefits that could be realized if the deal closed this year, Miller said.
The deal's proceeds could be used to pay down debt and buy back $1.9 billion in stock, he added.
Miller, who together with co-investors has a stake in Crown Castle worth more than $100 million, has asked that the company appoint him executive chairman and that three of his partners also join the board of directors.
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