Waynesboro, Va.-based telco Ntelos, announced today that it has entered into a multi-step agreement with affiliates of Quadrangle Capital Partners LP and Citigroup Venture Capital under which Ntelos will be recapitalized and sold to Quadrangle and CVC.

Ntelos, which serves around 75,000 access lines and holds wireless licenses covering 6.7 million people in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky, first will refinance its existing debt and repurchase up to 75% of its existing equity for $40 per share. A group of about a dozen former bondholders currently holds all of the equity in Ntelos, which took the unusual step for an ILEC of filing for Chapter 11 protection in 2003. That bondholder group is led by Morgan Stanley and affiliates of Capital Research and Management, both of whom have approved the sale.

Following the 75% purchase, Quadrangle and CVC will purchase up to 24.9% of the post-recapitalization equity in Ntelos, also at a price of $40 per share. Upon regulatory approval, which according to a Ntelos spokesman is expected in July, Quadrangle and CVC will acquire the remainder of the company?s equity, also at the $40 per share price.

Quadrangle Group LLC manages Quadrangle Capital Partners LP, a $1.1 billion private equity fund that specializes in the media and communications industries. Among its holdings are NuVox Communications, a competitive carrier created last year by the merger of NewSouth Communications and NuVox. Citigroup Venture Capital currently manages $2.6 billion in private equity partnerships with major institutional investors and its parent company, Citigroup.