Four years ago Airtel Africa successfully sold its towers in eleven markets but, conspicuously, failed to sell its passive infrastructure in Chad, Gabon, Madagascar, Malawi and Tanzania. With an IPO in the offing, the arguments for disposing of its capex-intensive towers are as strong as the arguments for keeping them, even if only in the short term. The five markets in which it tried and failed to sell its towers are fiercely price-competitive, but there are other industry- and country-risk factors it should consider when drawing up its options.
Airtel has options… but not many
Growing demand for mobile data services, supported by the proliferation of low-cost smartphones and the introduction of innovative mobile data offerings, will encourage higher data consumption.
