IHS Towers has paid $412 million to acquire tower assets from MTN
IHS Towers announced earlier today that it has completed the acquisition of 5,701 towers from MTN Group’s South African unit. This was for a consideration price of $412 million.
A press statement that was seen by Business Insider Africa explained that the deal would also see IHS Towers provide power management services on approximately 13,000 sites belonging to MTN South Africa.
Do note that the acquired assets, alongside the planned provision of power management services to MTN South Africa, are expected to deliver $192 million and $85 million in revenue and adjusted EBITDA for IHS Towers in one year.
In his comment, the Chief Executive Officer of IHS Towers, Sam Darwish, described the deal as an important milestone.
“The closure of this acquisition is an important milestone in IHS’ growth story. IHS was founded in Africa and the region continues to be a key anchor for our company. Through this transaction, IHS has now entered the most industrialized economy in Africa as South Africa’s largest independent tower operator. MTN Group have been a long-term partner of IHS, and I am delighted that we will expand that collaboration and facilitate mobile connectivity in South Africa. We will leverage our deep operational excellence and engineering expertise, honed across our other African markets, to meet South Africa’s increasingly sophisticated data demands and expedite the roll-out of new technologies.”
Also, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Group, Ralph Mupita, commented on the development, saying that “we are pleased to have IHS bring global capabilities to our South Africa network.”
Do note that this is the latest in a series of similar deals signed recently by IHS Towers, as part of its inorganic global expansion. Earlier this year, the company spent $315 million to acquire São Paulo Cinco Locação de Torres Ltd (SP5), a portfolio company formerly owned by one of Brazil’s largest telecom towers operators —Grupo Torresur.
The company had also recently obtained a license to build and lease telecom towers in Egypt.
Following this latest deal, IHS Towers now has operations in eleven emerging markets. Seven of these operations are in Africa, with the remaining ones in South America and the Middle East. As a global leader in the development and operation of share communications infrastructure, the company has about 39, 000 tower assets across these destinations.
Recall that IHS Towers is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) where it is currently trading with a share price of $11.71.
For the first quarter ended March 31st 2022, the company reported total revenue of $446.1 million and a profit after tax of $16.9 million, according to checks by Business Insider Africa.
