Mexico's Axtel to sell towers to American Tower for $56 mln

MEXICO CITY, July 11 (Reuters) - Mexico's Axtel, the telephone unit of conglomerate Alfa, on Tuesday said it had reached a deal to sell towers to a subsidiary of American Tower Corp for $56 million.

Axtel said in a filing with the Mexican exchange that it had reached a deal with MATC Digital to sell the American Tower unit 142 phone towers in a deal seen closing this year. Axtel also agreed to rent the towers for 15 years, the statement said.

Axtel said the sale would help it improve its "capital structure." In April, ratings agency Moody's revised its outlook on Axtel to negative.

Axtel shares closed down nearly 1 percent on Thursday before the announcement while American Tower stock dipped 0.2 percent on Wall Street. (Reporting by Michael O'Boyle; Editing by Andrew Hay)