Macquarie Comms plans cap raising for Airwave deal

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A Macquarie Bank MBL.AX infrastructure fund on Thursday outlined plans for a A$1.35 billion (560 million pound) capital raising to fund its share of the takeover of emergency radio network Airwave from Spain's Telefonica

(TEF.MC).

Australia's Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group (MCIG) (MCG.AX) said it will fund the deal with a A$625 million five-year convertible bond issue and a placement of the same amount, and added the bond issue could be increased to A$725 million.

MCIG, together with Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund II (MEIF II), bought the secure digital network which is used by Britain's police, ambulance and fire services for 1.9 billion pounds in a deal announced in London and Madrid on Wednesday.

The two funds will each own 50 percent of Airwave.

"There seems to be a significant amount of growth in the Airwave business," said JP Morgan analyst Kirsty Mackay-Fisher.

"And you can take some encouragement from the fact (MCG) has upgraded its distribution guidance on the back of the transaction," she said, adding she had not finished analysing the deal.

Macquarie Bank is one of the world's largest owners and managers of infrastructure and already owns a number of other infrastructure assets across Europe. MCIG led a consortium that bought telecoms infrastructure group Arqiva in 2004.

The deal comes less than a month after Macquarie agreed to buy National Grid Wireless for 2.5 billion pounds ($5 billion), and company officials said the two deals were originally intended to be announced together.