ATN Cashes in on Towers, Pivoting to Core Digital Services in $268M Deal

BEVERLY, Mass. – June 02, 2026 – ATN International, Inc. today announced a significant strategic realignment, completing the initial phase of a major asset sale that injects $268 million in cash into the company and sharpens its focus on its core digital services business. The deal involves the sale of its Southwestern U.S. tower portfolio to an affiliate of Everest Infrastructure Partners, a firm aggressively consolidating telecommunications infrastructure across the globe.

This divestiture marks a pivotal moment for ATN, a company that has long operated at the intersection of infrastructure and service provision. By monetizing these passive tower assets, ATN is generating substantial liquidity—an amount its CEO notes is comparable to its entire annual Adjusted EBITDA—to pay down debt and fuel investment in its primary mission: delivering advanced connectivity to rural and remote markets.

A Strategic Capital Infusion

The transaction saw ATN’s subsidiary, Commnet Wireless, complete the initial closing on the sale of its towers and related operations to EIP Holdings IV, LLC, an affiliate of Everest Infrastructure Partners. The immediate result is a $268 million cash infusion. ATN has already earmarked $68 million of these proceeds to pay down borrowings on its CoBank revolving credit facility, a move that immediately strengthens its balance sheet and reduces interest expenses.

“The initial closing of the Tower Portfolio Transaction represents an important milestone in building a stronger, more resilient ATN,” said Naji Khoury, Chief Executive Officer of ATN, in the company's official statement. “With net proceeds from the initial closing broadly the size of our annual Adjusted EBITDA, we are enhancing our liquidity and financial flexibility. This positions us to execute disciplined capital allocation and invest in opportunities that drive performance and deliver long-term stockholder value.”

The deal is not entirely complete, with up to an additional $30 million in proceeds expected over the next twelve months. These subsequent payments are contingent upon achieving specific construction and operational milestones for sites that were not transferred in this initial closing, providing a potential further boost to ATN’s capital reserves.

The Evolving Telecom Landscape and Specialization

ATN’s move is reflective of a larger, transformative trend within the telecommunications sector. The industry is witnessing a great unbundling, where companies increasingly specialize as either pure-play infrastructure owners or as service providers that lease access to that infrastructure. ATN is decisively positioning itself in the latter camp, choosing to focus its capital and operational expertise on service delivery rather than passive asset ownership.

The buyer, Everest Infrastructure Partners, epitomizes the other side of this equation. Since its founding in 2015, Everest has become a formidable force in the infrastructure space, pursuing an aggressive growth-by-acquisition strategy. With over $2 billion in capital commitments, the Pittsburgh-based firm has been rapidly acquiring tower portfolios across the United States and internationally. Its recent acquisitions include a 70-site portfolio from Tower Ventures in 2025 and assets from Inland Cellular in 2022, demonstrating a clear strategy to build a scaled network of high-value wireless sites.

For Everest, the 214 towers acquired from ATN's Commnet Wireless represent a strategic expansion of its U.S. footprint. The company's president, Mike Mackey, has previously highlighted that such assets offer substantial capacity and are poised for strong future tenant growth, particularly as carriers expand their 5G networks. This underscores the inherent value of the portfolio ATN built, which it has now successfully monetized to fund its next chapter.

Recalibrating for Growth Beyond Towers

By divesting the tower portfolio, ATN is freeing up capital to double down on its core business model. The company specializes in providing advanced wireless and wireline connectivity to residential, business, and government customers, with a particular focus on rural, remote, and international markets like the Caribbean where digital infrastructure investment is in high demand. This strategic pivot allows management to concentrate on expanding its fiber networks and enhancing its high-speed internet, video, and voice services.

Naturally, the sale of a revenue-generating asset necessitates a recalibration of financial forecasts. ATN has updated its full-year 2026 outlook accordingly. The company now expects its Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $183 million to $193 million, a downward revision from the previous forecast of $190 million to $200 million. This change is a direct and anticipated consequence of the sale, reflecting an expected $7 million reduction in Adjusted EBITDA and a $3 million drop in revenue over the remaining seven months of the year from the divested assets. This adjustment is a mathematical outcome of the transaction, not an indicator of declining operational performance in its core retained businesses.

Navigating Investor Expectations

The market will now be watching ATN’s next moves with keen interest. The central challenge—and opportunity—for the company is to deploy its newfound capital effectively. The success of this strategic divestiture will ultimately be measured by ATN's ability to generate new, higher-margin revenue streams from its core connectivity services that can more than replace the earnings from the sold towers.

Investors will be looking for a clear roadmap on how the remaining nearly $200 million in proceeds will be allocated. The company’s focus on underserved markets is a compelling narrative, as these areas often present less competition and a significant need for the digital infrastructure ATN provides. By channeling its resources into these high-growth opportunities, ATN aims to demonstrate that it can create more value as a focused service provider than it could as a hybrid operator and infrastructure owner. The execution of this capital allocation strategy will be the defining factor in shaping the company’s trajectory and delivering the long-term stockholder value its leadership has promised.