Vertical Bridge Adds $450M in Capital Raise

BOCA RATON, FL—Recently launched Vertical Bridge Holdings LLC, a private REIT focused on wireless communications towers, said Tuesday it had secured $470 million in a second-round capital raise. The company has now secured equity commitments of $750 million, along with a senior credit facility of $270 million.

Round two of the capital raise includes additional equity from existing investors Digital Bridge Holdings LLC and the Jordan Co., and major new commitments from Goldman Sachs' GS Infrastructure Partners and from Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners. Accordingly, says the REIT's CEO, Alexander Gellman, “we have over $1 billion of immediately investable capital to fund our growth.”

Stonepeak's co-founder and managing partner, Trent Vichie, observes, “We view the US tower sector as the critical infrastructure enabling connectivity in the US wireless telecom industry.” With that in mind, says GS Infrastructure's Americas head, Edward Pallesen, “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.”

VB was launched earlier this year by Boca Raton, FL-based Digital Bridge, itself formed in 2013 as a partnership between Ben Jenkins, formerly of the Blackstone Group, and former Global Tower Partners CEO Marc Ganzi after GTP was sold to American Tower Corp. for $3.3 billion. To date, the REIT has completed 23 acquisitions. Most recently, it added six cell tower portfolios serving the Great Lakes region, the eastern US and Puerto Rico.