SHORT HILLS, NJ, April 8, 2019–Diamond Communications Holdings LLC, one of the largest privately held wireless infrastructure companies in the U.S., today announced that John Hancock and its affiliates have acquired a minority stake in the company.
The stake was acquired by the John Hancock Infrastructure Fund (“JHIF”) and John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) (“John Hancock”), a division of Manulife Financial Corporation. JHIF, a private equity fund with approximately $2 billion of committed capital, is managed by John Hancock’s Power & Infrastructure Group, and is part of Manulife Private Markets.
“We are excited to have John Hancock join us as an investor,” said Ed Farscht, Diamond’s CEO. “John Hancock’s investment in Diamond creates a significant growth opportunity for our company. John Hancock has significant experience in the telecommunications wireless infrastructure industry and provides Diamond with a strong institutional investor allowing Diamond to deploy additional capital in the future. We take great care in choosing our business partners and are proud to be working with John Hancock as well as our other partners, including Oz Real Estate.”
“We are pleased to expand our telecommunications infrastructure platform with an investment in Diamond,” said Recep Kendircioglu, Portfolio Manager of JHIF and the Head of John Hancock’s Power and Infrastructure Group. “The Diamond management team has done an excellent job of creating a portfolio of attractive wireless infrastructure assets.”
John Hancock was advised by TAP Advisors LLC and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Diamond was advised by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.
About Diamond Communications Holdings LLC
Diamond is headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey with offices in eleven states throughout the U.S. Diamond is one of the largest private U.S. wireless infrastructure companies and manages over 200,000 properties and structures across the country. Diamond has longstanding relationships with the major wireless carriers, regional carriers, first responders and other wireless users. Please visit our website at www.diamondcomm.com.
About John Hancock and Manulife
John Hancock is a division of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States, and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were more than CAD$1.1 trillion (US$794 billion) as of December 31, 2018. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as MFC on the TSX, NYSE, and PSE, and under 945 on the SEHK. Manulife can be found at manulife.com.
One of the largest life insurers in the United States, John Hancock supports approximately 10 million Americans with a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, and college savings plans. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com.
Manulife and John Hancock offer comprehensive wealth and asset management solutions for institutional and retail investors globally across a broad range of public and private asset classes, as well as asset allocation solutions. Manulife’s Private Markets platform offers long term solutions for its clients by leveraging our expertise across private equity and private credit, real estate equity and debt, infrastructure equity, timberland and farmland.
About Oz Real Estate
Oz Real Estate, the real estate platform at Oz Management, was founded by Steven E. Orbuch in 2003 to make investments in real estate and real estate related assets across North America and Europe. The principals of Oz Real Estate have invested in over $9.0 billion of private real estate assets, including direct equity investments, preferred equity structures, mezzanine financing, and senior loans. Oz Real Estate’s portfolio has included over 20,000 hotel rooms, over 30,000 multifamily and residential units, and over 20 million square feet of retail and office properties. In addition, Oz Real Estate has developed expertise in certain niche real estate asset classes including gaming, healthcare, senior housing, cellular towers, ski resorts, and land development. For more information on Oz Real Estate, please see ozm.com.
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