Digital Multimedia Technologies, an Italian communications infrastructure group, is not for sale and is considering acquisitions to expand its core transmission tower business, Chairman and CEO Alessandro Falciai told Reuters. "We might start thinking about resuming selective acquisitions (of towers) again later this year," Falciai said in an interview on Friday.
DMT's tower business comprises over half of the company's turnover. In previous years, before the crisis, DMT aggressively grew its portfolio of transmission towers, or base stations as they are sometimes called. "We have no problems regarding debt, covenant or interest payment issues. We do not need to tap the market," Falciai said.
DMT's core tower business, whose turnover grew by 4 percent in the first half of this year, provides good visibility on revenue flows since it is based on long-term rental contracts. In the first half of the year, DMT posted a 21 percent growth in sales to 45.8 million euros ($65.76 million) while EBITDA rose 43 percent to 13.8 million euros.
Expectations for the second half are for improvement. "Traditionally our business is stronger in the second half of the year," Falciai said. DMT has said it expects EBITDA for 2009 to be 28-29 million euros. Debt is seen at 120-125 million euros at year-end.
In recent years DMT has attracted the interest of many international funds. Current shareholders include Lazard Asset Management, Barclays and Canyon Capital Advisory. In March Falciai, who controls around 39 percent of DMT according to market watchdog filings, was forced to accept the sale of a packet of DMT shares by UBS as part of an operation.
That sale triggered interest in the company from investment banks and potential buyers, especially private equity. "In recent months I've seen a degree of interest for DMT and its infrastructure," Falciai said. "But I'm here, I have no intention of selling ... DMT is not for sale."
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