Crown Castle co-founder says company could fetch up to $15 bln for fiber assets

By Greg Roumeliotis

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Crown Castle's co-founder Ted Miller said on Tuesday that the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure company could fetch as much as $15 billion by selling its fiber assets if it let him and his partners join its board of directors.

Miller told Reuters in an interview that he and his team were best positioned to find buyers for the fiber business and help Crown Castle upgrade its tower assets so it can keep up with advances in wireless network technology.

"When you create a company from scratch and take it public, you learn a lot more than when you take over from someone else," Miller said.

A spokesperson for Crown Castle did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Miller's demands. The Houston-based company said in December it would explore a sale of its fiber business after reaching a deal with hedge fund Elliott Investment Management over shaking up its board.

Miller has told Crown Castle he can help it fetch between $12 billion and $15 billion for its fiber assets and that he has already carried out preparatory work that will save it six months in finding buyers, so it can complete a deal by the end of 2024.

This work, which Miller said he had spent $5 million on, included signing 25 non-disclosure agreements with prospective buyers and identifying more than $1 billion in tax benefits that could be realized if the deal closed this year, Miller said.

The deal's proceeds could be used to pay down debt and buy back $1.9 billion in stock, he added.

Miller, who together with co-investors has a stake in Crown Castle worth more than $100 million, has asked that the company appoint him executive chairman and that three of his partners also join the board of directors. They are former Crown Castle chief financial officer Chuck Green, former Credit Suisse investment banker Daniel Wheeler, and Tripp Rice, Miller's son-in-law and a partner in Miller's firm, 4M Investments.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month on Miller's challenge against Crown Castle's board.

MILLER SEEKS OVERHAUL

Miller said he could help eliminate the discount at which Crown Castle shares trade to peers such as SBA Communications and American Tower not just through the fiber divestiture but by improving operations.

He has criticized the company for raising its staff headcount while keep its number of towers steady at around 40,000, and for not fully adopting technological innovations such as drone data and artificial intelligence.

"I don't believe Crown Castle has the leadership needed to right the ship, sell the fiber business, invest in its towers, restore relationships with major carriers and fix its broken culture," Miller said.

Crown Castle is looking for a chief executive after Jay Brown stepped down last month following more than 7 years at the helm. Anthony Melone, a former Verizon Communications chief technology officer and one of Crown Castle's board directors, is serving as interim chief executive.

Miller also criticized Crown Castle's pact with Elliott and asked that Crown Castle let shareholders vote on it.

The agreement, which added an Elliott representative and a former Level-3 Communications executive to Crown Castle's board, gave Elliott too much influence without requiring it to stick to ownership thresholds, Miller said.

Elliott sold down its investment in Crown Castle from about $2 billion in December to just $141 million, Miller said, citing Elliott's most recent regulatory filing.

An Elliott representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Miller, 72, co-founded Crown Castle in 1994 and served as its chief executive until 2002. He has since founded and served on the board of several other companies.

Crown Castle, which rents out towers to wireless carriers such as Verizon and AT&T, has a market value of $47 billion. Its shares have dropped 23% in the last 12 months versus an 11% decline in American Tower's shares. (Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Sonali Paul)