Ridgemont Equity creates J5 Infrastructure Partners with Cortel, TowerCom Technologies assets

Equity investor Ridgemont Equity has purchased deployment services firms Cortel and TowerCom Technologies and formed J5 Infrastructure Partners. Jerry Elliott will serve as CEO of J5, which will be based in Orange County, Calif., and will specialize in site acquisition, leasing, permitting, zoning and equipment installation.

Besides Ridgemont Equity, private investment firm SR Capital Advisors is a co-investor in the deal. Debut financing, including additional capital for more acquisitions, was arranged by SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and provided by SunTrust Bank, MUFG Union Bank N.A. and U.S. Bank.

According to J5, through the acquisition of Cortel and TowerCom, it will provide services to all four of the Tier 1 U.S. wireless carriers as well as other tower and infrastructure owners and state and local governments. The company plans to expand and add more services to provide a bigger portfolio of services for both wireless and wireline network operators. It also plans to expand through further acquisitions and organic growth.

Elliott previously was the president and COO of Leap Wireless. Prior to that he was CFO of the The Weather Company. He also had executive roles with Global Signal and Frontier Communications.

As wireless operators strive to densify their networks with small cells and distributed antenna systems, many are finding site acquisition, permitting and zoning to be particularly challenging. This is presenting an opportunity for deployment services firms such as J5.

For more:
- See this press release

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