The shape of the Kenyan tower industry following the American Tower-Telkom Kenya deal

In April 2018, American Tower announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire up to 723 towers from Telkom Kenya. The transaction, expected to close in the second half of 2018, adds a fifth country to the towerco’s African footprint and marks the second tower transaction of scale in Kenya. TowerXchange examine the transaction and dynamics in the Kenyan mobile market.

There are 42.8mn mobile subscriptions in the Kenyan market with mobile penetration sitting at 94% (source Kenya Communications Authority). Subscriber growth continues apace in the country with the total number of subscribers up 10% year on year as of December 2017 (figure one).