Vast Broadband has entered into an agreement to acquire NTS Communications, a broadband fiber company with more than 20,000 residential and business customers in Texas and Louisiana. The Vast Broadband NTS Communications deal will bring 20,000 NTS residential and business customers into the Vast fold.
NTS, which is now owned by Tower Three Partners, offers high speed data, video and voice services. If the deal is completed, Oak Hill Capital Partners and Pamlico Capital will lead a recapitalization aimed at supporting accelerated growth plans, according to the press release. Financial terms of the acquisition, which must gain regulatory approvals, were not disclosed.
Vast Broadband NTS Communications Deal
“We are thrilled to acquire the attractive NTS fiber assets and support NTS’s talented local management team to better serve these customers and communities,” Vast CEO Jim Gleason said in the press release. “We are excited to launch our next stage of growth supported by long-term financial commitments from Oak Hill and Pamlico, and we look forward to investing in our network and service offerings across the combined footprint while continuing our focus on providing the highest quality service to our customers.”
The NTS footprint includes more than 2,700 owned route miles and passes more than 60,000 homes and businesses in the Texas markets of Lubbock, Amarillo, Abilene, Midland and Wichita Falls markets and markets in Louisiana.
Vast management has a significant track record of working in this landscape. The team previously built NewWave Communications, which served 160,000 subscribers, and has operated Vast since 2014.
There has been some streamlining of Vast’s footprint. In July 2017, Schurz Communications completed the acquisition of Vast’s network facilities and customers in northwest Iowa and southeast South Dakota.
NTS made two moves in 2015 to upgrade its Texas network holdings. It launched Gigabit fiber networks in Midland in June and in Amarillo in October.
Oak Hill has been an active broadband deal maker during the past couple of years. In February of last year, Oak Hill Capital Partners IV sold FirstLight, a bandwidth service provider in the northeast, to Antin Infrastructure Partners, a European Company.
FirstLight is a group of acquired companies. In April, Oak Hill said it would brand acquisitions Oxford Networks and ION Communications as FirstLight. Oak Hill had completed the acquisition of First Light Fiber in September, 2016.
Oak Hill previously had made other telecom acquisitions – including Oxford Networks and Sovernet Communications in July and August, 2016, respectively.
