Helios Towers Africa (HTA) has acquired 3,100 of Airtel’s 15,000+ African towers currently for sale. TowerXchange present an educated guess as to the four countries involved, and note that reported valuations of US$400-550mn correspond with HTA’s parallel announcement of the injection of $630mn in new capital. This feature also includes an exclusive interview with Chuck Green, CEO of HTA and member of TowerXchange’s Inner Circle Informal Advisory Board.
After 11 months of negotiations, the first tranche of Airtel’s African tower sale has been announced, with Helios Towers Africa (HTA) acquiring 3,100 towers in four countries. Like most emerging market tower deals, this looks like a win-win: Helios Towers Africa strengthens it’s leadership position in existing markets while diversifying to mitigate country and counterparty risk; Airtel pays down debt, stabilises opex, and frees up management bandwidth to concentrate on the retail side of the business.
