A hot topic on two round tables at the recent TowerXchange Meetup was the potential for a ‘middle market’ of towercos in Africa. Does the aggressive bidding and accumulated experience of Africa’s “Big Four” towercos preclude new international, local or niche towercos from acquiring assets? Could new entrant towercos target markets too small or too risky to attract interest from the “Big Four”? Could debt and equity capital be accessed by niche towercos targeting BTS opportunities in urban areas, or by ‘rural infracos’ managing passive and active infrastructure and building low energy cell sites in rural areas?
Different breeds of ‘middle market towerco’
TowerXchange categorises the African middle market towercos into five broad categories:
1.
