For the past few years, vHive has been partnering with the tower industry on drone-enabled autonomous data capture, creation of 3D photogrammetry models, and more. While our business has expanded to provide a wide range of solutions, one customer use case has become ever more frequent: the need for better data to smooth the way for Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A). We’ve performed hundreds of autonomous drone surveys for M&A deals, and we’ve learned from our global customer base exactly what M&A teams are looking for. We’ve honed our offering to make the process easy: providing our clients with fast, high-quality and accurate data on the assets they’re planning to purchase anywhere in the world. Customers can see visualizations, reports, and drill down into the details of any piece of inventory – all without leaving their computer.
More Data Insights in Less Time
M&A teams generally rely on ground surveys to evaluate the assets of a potential deal. These manual surveys can be difficult to arrange, time consuming to schedule and expensive to execute – and because of these limitations, companies are often forced to rely on information from a small sampling of sites.
vHive provides a turn-key solution, from automated drone-enabled surveys to Digital Twins. We’re able to gather data on all the accessible properties, rather than the 10 – 15% of properties that most ground survey teams can complete. This expanded data enables better negotiations, more accurate pricing, and ensures a smoother and faster M&A process.
Automated drone surveys don’t just provide more data, they provide better and more accurate data. Aerial surveys go beyond standard reports and present a holistic view of assets. Customers can receive a 3D digital model of a tower, allowing for accurate visualization, analytics and measurements. Users can zoom in on any area of the asset for a detailed view. AI-driven analytics can identify relevant points: highlighting unutilized mounts and any free space available for future rental, or areas that may require maintenance like cracks or damage.
In addition to providing a detailed understanding of a tower, an automated drone survey offers a huge amount of data about a site and its environment, answering questions that an M&A team may not even have asked. Line of sight evaluation provides valuable insights about the competitive environment and the surrounding areas. A 360° “virtual tour” of the site can add even more information. Are there other towers in the area? Are there challenges to access the site? Is the environment rural, or difficult to reach in some seasons? Are there other physical aspects of the surroundings that could impact the site? This digital data is not only unquestionably accurate – it can be easily shared with all parties concerned, wherever they are.
The vHive Solution
vHive surveys of tower sites provide an accurate visual representation of a physical asset: an undeniable reference to exactly what a site holds. That single source of truth can be leveraged for a more accurate valuation, and a better and more informed negotiation.
Site surveys for M&A deals should be fast, accurate, and easy. At vHive, we’ve done thousands of surveys for deals in the tower industry. We understand the difficulties of gathering data and we do the hard work for our clients. We handle the operational issues from getting permissions and access to sites from the seller to scheduling drone pilots to perform automated drone surveys around the world. vHive’s Digital Twin software enables any drone pilot to use currently available commercial, off the shelf drones and execute the mission perfectly for accurate data every time. Regardless of the type of tower – monopole, lattice, guy wire, or rooftop – the vHive software determines the precise flight path required with only a few taps on an tablet. Data gathering is fast, detailed, and consistent, regardless of the asset location or the pilot performing the task. All Data is automatically uploaded to the vHive cloud and vHive’s visualization and analytical site audit reports enable rapid tower due diligence to support site valuations, yielding informed price negotiations and a better overall understanding of the acquired assets.
vHive’s sophisticated software and deep operational experience allow vHive to provide smoothly executed site surveys that provide your company with a competitive advantage in tower deals anywhere in the world. We offer customers more, and better, information – without ever leaving their seats.