(Bloomberg) -- Terra Firma Capital Partners, the U.K. private equity firm run by investor Guy Hands, is among the companies considering a bid for communications infrastructure firm Arqiva Group Ltd. as the July 10 deadline for initial offers nears, people familiar with the matter said.
A consortium led by buyout firm Arcus Infrastructure Partners, as well as Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Spanish mobile tower company Cellnex Telecom SA and private equity firm CVC Capital Partners have also weighed offers, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Arqiva may fetch more than 5 billion pounds ($6.4 billion) in a sale, they said.
Arqiva plans to complete the deal by the end of the year, the people said. Representatives for Terra Firma, CVC, Arcus, Brookfield and Arqiva declined to comment. Cellnex didn't immediately respond to a call and email.
Arqiva -- which provides connectivity to mobile carriers including Vodafone Group Plc through its roughly 8,000 mobile-phone towers, and digital and satellite services to pay-TV operators including Sky Plc and ITV Plc -- is weighing a sale amid a wave of communications infrastructure deals globally, as investors seek the stable, long-term returns generated by tower and data-center operations.
Winchester, England-based Arqiva, whose largest shareholders include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Macquarie Group Ltd., hired Rothschild & Co. in 2015 to consider options for the business, people familiar with the matter said at the time. In May, the company said its shareholders are preparing a review of the business that may lead to a transaction.
The company's net debt was 5.51 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization at the end of December 2016.
--With assistance from Scott Deveau
To contact the reporters on this story: Sarah Syed in London at ssyed35@bloomberg.net, Rebecca Penty in London at rpenty@bloomberg.net, Manuel Baigorri in London at mbaigorri@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net, Amy Thomson, Devin Banerjee
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