Windstream Corp. of Little Rock announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Iowa Telecommunications Services Inc. in a transaction valued at about $1.2 billion, according to a company release.
Iowa Telecom shareholders received 0.804 shares of Windstream stock and $7.90 in cash for each Iowa Telecom share in the transaction. Windstream issued about 26.7 million shares of stock valued at $284 million, based on the company's closing stock price on May 28, and paid about $260 million in cash as part of the transaction.
Windstream also repaid all of Iowa Telecom's outstanding debt, which was about $613 million.
A final interim dividend declared by Iowa Telecom's board of directors on May 18 will be paid as soon as possible to the Iowa Telecom shareholders of record as of the close of business May 28. The dividend will be $0.1389890 per share.
As of March 31, Iowa Telecom provided service to 249,000 access lines, 96,000 high-speed internet customers and 27,500 digital TV customers in Iowa and Minnesota. The completion of the acquisition will provide the company with increased scale and annual synergies of $35 million in operating expenses and capital expenditure savings, according to the release.
The transaction also included tax assets with an estimated net present value of about $130 million.
Iowa Telecom Chairman and CEO Alan Wells was appointed to the Windstream board of directors effective with the closing of the transaction.
