Houlihan Lokey Advises Citizens Communications

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce the successful sale of Citizens Communications Corp.’s three wholly owned operating subsidiaries (Citizens Cablevision, Inc., Citizens Long Distance Co., and Citizens Telephone Co. of Higginsville, Missouri—collectively, “Citizens”) to Green Hills Telephone Corp., doing business as Green Hills Communications (Green Hills). This transaction closed on September 1, 2020.

Through this acquisition, Green Hills obtained Citizens’ fiber, coaxial cable, and copper network, which spans over 700 miles and serves business and residential customers in 13 nearby communities. The two companies will continue to conduct business as Green Hills and Citizens in their respective communities. They will maintain offices in Higginsville and Breckenridge, Missouri, under the direction of the existing Green Hills management team led by General Manager David Adams.

On a combined basis, Green Hills and Citizens will provide telecommunications solutions to business and residential customers in nine Missouri counties, offering a full suite of communications services, including local and long-distance phone service, TV programming, high-speed internet, unified business communications, hosted business solutions, ethernet connectivity, and customized networking solutions.

Houlihan Lokey (formerly MVP Capital) acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Citizens and negotiated all aspects of the transaction on their behalf. This deal is emblematic of the firm’s continued success advising Midwestern telecommunications companies.