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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Verizon hires TAP Advisors to plan sale of assets, (NYSE: VZ)

Verizon Communications Inc has hired investment bank TAP Advisors LLC to plan a sale of its network's assets including its cell towers, according to a source familiar with the matter. Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo told Reuters on Sept. 17 that Verizon is open to divesting its network's assets.Verizon was inspired by rival AT&T's $4.85 billion sale of some of its towers to tower operator Crown Castle (CCI) last year, Shammo said.A sale or leaseback of the towers similar to AT&T's deal at $500,000 per site could raise $6 billion in liquidity, Macquarie Securities analyst Kevin Smithen wrote in a note."We believe there could be multiple bidders for this asset but believe the potential sale of the last sizeable U.S. tower asset could explain why CCI has not announced a capital return strategy to date," Smithen said.

Verizon Communications Inc. (Verizon) is a holding company. Shares of VZ fell by 0.54% or $-0.27/share to $49.91. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $45.45 and as high as $53.66. On average, 13457800 shares of VZ exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 10614468.



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