Following the approval from the Overseas Investment Office, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board now owns 70 per cent of Spark's TowerCo, the subsidiary set up by the telco in February this year to manage its cell site assets.
The telco incumbent announced the sale in July, saying the deal was worth $900 million.
As indicated earlier, Spark intends to return $350 million to shareholders, through an on-market share buy back.
Market conditions will determine the timing of the share buy back, and Spark said it might investigate alternative ways to return the proceeds if required.
One New Zealand, formerly known as Vodafone New Zealand, also has tower assets sale pending OIO approval.
Unlike Spark, One NZ sold its entire passive tower assets to private equity firms Northleaf Capital and InfraRed Capital Partners.
The One NZ sale is valued at $1.7 billion, comprising 1484 towers.
