Vertical Bridge Holdings Completes Second Round Capital Raise; Equity Commitments Now Total $750 million

Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) November 11, 2014

Vertical Bridge Holdings, LLC, a privately owned real estate investment trust focused on the ownership of wireless communications towers in the U.S., today announced that it has secured over $470 million of incremental equity commitments in a second round capital raise to support its acquisitions, new tower build programs, and growth strategy.

With the closing of these commitments, which include significant additional equity from existing investors Digital Bridge Holdings, LLC and The Jordan Company, and major new commitments from GS Infrastructure Partners and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, Vertical Bridge has secured equity capital commitments of $750 million.

Vertical Bridge has closed 23 acquisitions to date in 2014, including 4 deals completed since October 1, the company said.

“Vertical Bridge now has over $750 million of committed equity, and alongside our existing $270 million senior credit facility, we have over $1 billion of immediately investable capital to fund our growth,” said Alexander L. Gellman, CEO and Co-Founder of Vertical Bridge, which was founded in 2014. “We are pleased that Digital Bridge and The Jordan Company increased their commitments, and welcome the opportunity to work with well-established partners such as GS Infrastructure Partners and Stonepeak.”

“We are extremely excited to support the Vertical Bridge team with the largest commitment among this high quality equity investor group," commented Marc Ganzi, CEO of Digital Bridge Holdings, LLC. "We remain very bullish on the U.S. tower space, and are pleased to provide the Vertical Bridge team with the capital necessary to assist our wireless carrier partners in the deployment of their ongoing and future network needs.”

“Since the day we first invested in Vertical Bridge, we have become even more excited about our partnership with Marc, Alex and the rest of the Vertical Bridge team," said Eion Hu, Senior Partner at The Jordan Company. "They have proven themselves to be a superior management team in an industry benefiting from significant demand drivers. We are thrilled with this opportunity to increase our equity commitment in Vertical Bridge.”

“As global infrastructure investors, we look for opportunities to partner with best-in-class management teams in industries that can provide stability and attractive prospects. We believe Vertical Bridge stands out in the wireless tower sector and we are excited to work with management on their next phase of growth,” said Edward Pallesen, Head of Americas for GS Infrastructure Partners at Goldman Sachs.

“We view the U.S. tower sector as the critical infrastructure enabling connectivity in the U.S. wireless telecom industry. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to be involved in this space through our partnership with Vertical Bridge, Digital Bridge, and their other financial partners," added Trent Vichie, Senior Managing Director & Co-Founder of Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners.

About Vertical Bridge‍

Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC is the largest private owner and operator of communications infrastructure and locations in the United States, with a portfolio of more than 500,000 sites, including over 11,000 owned and master-leased towers and the nation’s largest and tallest collection of broadcast tower sites. The Company’s portfolio spreads across all 50 states and Puerto Rico and is comprised of towers, rooftops, billboards, utility attachments, convenience stores and other locations in support of wireless network deployments. In addition to colocation, Vertical Bridge offers build-to-suit, edge data centers and in-building wireless network solutions.

Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Vertical Bridge was founded in 2014 and is led by a senior management team with over 400 years of collective experience in tower infrastructure and related sectors. Vertical Bridge became the first tower company in the world to achieve the CarbonNeutral® company certified status in 2020 and has been recertified every year since. For more information, please visit www.verticalbridge.com.

About Digital Bridge Holdings, LLC
Digital Bridge Holdings is a communications infrastructure platform based in Boca Raton, Florida. It was formed in 2013 through a partnership between Ben Jenkins (formerly of The Blackstone Group) and Marc Ganzi (former founder and CEO of Global Tower Partners). Digital Bridge owns interests in a broad range of communications infrastructure companies. It is dedicated to long-term value creation through the active management of its companies and strong alignment with its investor partners. Digital Bridge manages investments on behalf of institutional, corporate, endowment and family offices around the world. More information may be found at http://www.digitalbridgellc.com.

About The Jordan Company, L.P.
The Jordan Company, founded in 1982, is a leading middle-market private equity firm with more than $8 billion of committed capital assets under management and a 30-year track record of investing in and contributing to the growth of many businesses across a wide range of industries. The firm’s senior investment team has been together for more than 15 years and is supported by its Operations Management Group, which was established in 1988 to initiate and support operational improvements in portfolio companies. Headquartered in New York, The Jordan Company also has offices in Chicago and Shanghai. For more information, please refer to http://www.thejordancompany.com.

About Goldman Sachs
Founded in 1869, Goldman, Sachs & Co. (“Goldman Sachs”) is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals. GS Infrastructure Partners is Goldman Sachs’ primary vehicle to make direct investments in infrastructure and infrastructure-related assets and companies. GS Infrastructure Partners has approximately $10 billion in aggregate assets under management and is managed by the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. For more information, please visit http://www.gs.com.

About Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners
Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners is an independent private equity investment firm, managing $1.7 billion, specializing in North American middle-market infrastructure. Stonepeak invests in businesses comprised of hard assets with strategic importance, primarily in the following sectors: Energy, Power & Renewables, Transportation, Utilities, Water & Communications. Stonepeak is based in New York. Visit http://www.stonepeakpartners.com for more information.

Traci Clancy, Vertical Bridge Holdings, LLC, http://www.verticalbridge.com, +1 561-948-6367, tclancy@verticalbridge.com