America Movil SAB de CV (ADR) (AMX), Telefonica S.A. (ADR) (TEF): Is NII Holdings, Inc. (NIHD) Destined for Greatness?

Fool contributor Steve Symington notes that NII has agreed to sell 2,790 towers in Brazil, and 1,666 towers in Mexico, to American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT), for a total of $811 million — that’s about $180,000 per tower. NII subsidiaries Nextel Brazil and Nextel Mexico will lease the mobile communication towers back from American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT) after the deal closes. After this transaction, American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT) will have more than 60,000 communications sites worldwide in its portfolio. On the other hand, the proceeds from this transaction will help NII support its continued investments in Nextel’s next-generation network deployments across Brazil and Mexico.

NII also plans to sell its stake in Nextel Peru to Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A. for about $400 million. Fool contributor Rich Duprey points out that Brazil and Mexico combined for 83% of NII’s fiscal 2012 revenue, while Peru accounted for less than 6%. NII rival Telefonica S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TEF) has already deployed 3G and 4G services in many Latin American markets (including Brazil), while America Movil SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:AMX) is expected to roll out 4G LTE service in Mexico this year. NII is facing some major competitive headwinds in its core American mobile communication markets, and even after selling off a big chunk of its assets, the company still trails its larger rivals by a large margin in terms of deployable cash. NII Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:NIHD) had $1.5 billion on hand at last count, while America Movil SAB de CV (ADR) (NYSE:AMX) reported roughly $2.4 billion, and Telefonica S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TEF) has over $10 billion in the bank.

Putting the pieces together
Today, NII Holdings has few of the qualities that make up a great stock, but no stock is truly perfect. Digging deeper can help you uncover the answers you need to make a great buy — or to stay away from a stock that’s going nowhere.

The article Is NII Holdings Destined for Greatness? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alex Planes.

Fool contributor Alex Planes has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends, owns shares of, has has options on American Tower.

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