A raft of Airtel African tower acquisitions, announced in 2014, have recently closed. Five transactions have been confirmed in recent weeks, raising over US1.3bn, of which the sale of approximately 4,700 Nigerian towers to American Tower Corporation accounts for US$1.09bn.
Of the tower transactions in thirteen countries announced last year, five have now closed. However three have lapsed: Airtel has cancelled the tower sales to Helios Towers Africa in Tanzania, Chad and, most recently, the DRC. While no specific reason was given by Airtel for the cancellation of these transactions, Airtel’s recent admission that they are in talks with Orange to sell the French MNO their operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone may have something to do with the tower deal cancellations.
