IHS recently announced the acquisition of 1,100 towers from Airtel in Zambia and Rwanda. In fact the provisional tower count is 929 in Zambia and 184 in Rwanda, for a total of 1,113. We estimate the deal value to be US$181mn, placing the transaction in the 3rd quartile in terms of cost per tower among Airtel’s recent African tower sales.
Airtel’s only logical counterparty for their tower sale in Zambia and Rwanda was IHS. IHS’s acquisition of 1,113 towers from Airtel (929 in Zambia, 184 in Rwanda) was announced in mid December 2014.