Fast-growing African-focused tower operator IHS Holding has won another deal to operate towers on behalf of a mobile operator, this time involving 1 100 sites from Bharti Airtel in Zambia and Rwanda.
The latest deal expands IHS’s tower footprint in Africa to 21 000.
Operators typically sell their towers to reduce operational expenditure. In turn, tower operators can lease space on the towers to other companies interested in providing services to consumers.
“The agreements will allow Airtel to focus on its core business and customers, enable it to deleverage through debt reduction and will significantly reduce its ongoing capital expenditure on passive infrastructure in these African markets,” said IHS on Monday.
The Zambia and Rwanda deals are subject to statutory and regulatory approvals, the company said.
“This agreement will accelerate infrastructure sharing amongst operators and benefit customers in the form of affordable tariffs and wider network coverage,” said Airtel Africa CEO Christian de Faria.
The value of the transactions has not been disclosed.
News of the deals with Airtel come a month after IHS announced that it had signed agreements to raise capital of US$2,6bn, a deal it billed as the largest equity raising in Africa since 2007.
The company said it was raising $2bn in new equity and a further $600m through a loan facility.
The equity investment was secured from existing and new shareholders.
IHS has raised $4,5bn since 2012, using the money for expansion in markets across Africa, including Nigeria, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Zambia and Rwanda.
“The new funding will be applied to acquisitions which have more than doubled the size of IHS’s tower portfolio in the last 12 months and also further new site build programmes across the IHS footprint,” the company said in a statement in November.
“It will also be utilised to continue the roll-out of leading, efficient power technologies and operational management solutions including solar systems and high-efficiency generator units. These investments will deliver greener and more efficient power systems to our tower portfolio.” — © 2014 NewsCentral Media
