In January, Palistar Capital, the New York-based alternative asset manager, integrated two portfolio companies, Symphony Wireless and CTI Towers. The new entity became Symphony Towers Infrastructure, with tower industry veteran Bernard Borghei as CEO, DCD reported.

Founded in 2019, Symphony Wireless’ business was acquiring ground leases and easement rights to telecom towers then leasing those rights to infrastructure operators. CTI Towers, acquired by Palistar in 2020, owned, managed, and marketed more than 1,800 infrastructure assets across the U.S. prior to the acquisition, according to Inside Towers Intelligence.

Borghei said that while both companies were successful and growing, they were medium-sized companies, DCD reported. He explained that both companies served similar customers, namely, national mobile network operators AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS), and EchoStar’s (NASDAQ: SATS) Boost Mobile (formerly DISH Wireless) along with other regional MNOs.

Today, Symphony Towers Infrastructure operates 2,483 owned and managed tower assets across 50 states and is ranked as the U.S.’s sixth largest tower company by tower count, according to Inside Towers Database.

Borghei is striving to improve the operating efficiency of the integrated company, something that he believes is important for the long-term success of the business.

He points out that while Symphony Towers Infrastructure is interested in acquiring towers, it is not in the business of building towers like other tower companies. Rather, he prefers that it drive organic growth by leveraging both new and existing assets to attract more colocation tenants and increase tower leasing.