American Tower said global investment group Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) will invest €1.6 billion in exchange for a 30 per cent stake in its ATC Europe unit.

The US tower owner is set to become Europe’s second largest independent tower owner (after Cellnex) with its €7.7 billion purchase of Telxius Telecom, announced in January. The acquisition will give the company almost 24,000 towers in Germany and Spain, plus about 7,000 in Latin America. American Tower already owns towers in France.

The company’s appetite for new towers isn’t satiated yet. In announcing the deal with CDPQ, American Tower CEO Tom Bartlett said the alliance “creates a solid, adaptable framework through which future expansion opportunities can be evaluated and financed”.

CDPQ has experience in the tower industry. In April 2019, the group agreed to acquire a thirty percent stake in the main operating subsidiary of Vertical Bridge Holdings, LLC, the largest privately held tower owner in the US.

Bartlett said the CDPQ investment will help finance the Telxius Towers acquisition.

The company is also issuing new stock to help pay for the Telxius assets. American Tower said it intends to offer at least 8,500,000 shares of its common stock in a registered public offering, subject to market and other conditions. Although the offer is meant to help fund the Telxius purchase, the company said it is not contingent upon the deal closing.