Cellphone tower management company IHS has secured US$490m in new funding, made up of $420 in equity and $70m in debt, as it expands its operations across Africa.
Existing shareholders in IHS are contributing to the fund-raising exercise alongside new investors Goldman Sachs, the IFC Global Infrastructure Fund and African Infrastructure Investment Managers. Senior debt is being provided by Standard Chartered Bank for expansion of IHS’s business in Zambia.
The funding will be used for acquisitions and investment in new telecommunications infrastructure, the company said in a statement.
IHS, which describes itself as Africa’s largest independent telecoms infrastructure company by the number of towers managed, said the latest round of funding was priced at a premium to a round in 2013.
The company has now raised over $1,5bn in funding in the past 12 months as mobile operators across the continent increasingly look to sell their towers to third-party management companies in order to reduce costs as markets become more competitive.
IHS owns and manages 10 500 towers on behalf of mobile operators in Nigeria, Zambia, Rwanda, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media