Indian giant Bharti Airtel has received offers for towers in its African portfolio and the due diligence has begun, TelecomFinance understands.
Towercos Helios, IHS and Eaton are all said to be in the process. It remained unclear if other players…
Indian giant Bharti Airtel has received offers for towers in its African portfolio and the due diligence has begun, TelecomFinance understands.
Towercos Helios, IHS and Eaton are all said to be in the process. It remained unclear if other players including American Tower are still involved at this stage.
Sources familiar with the matter suggested Bharti may choose to split its portfolio of 15,000 towers between two or more towercos. The whole portfolio is valued at approximately US$1.8bn-US$2bn.
Suitors are currently arrange financing, which could include a mix of debt and equity. Some of the towercos could even bring in new investors, two sources said.
Bharti entered the African market in 2010 when it acquired most of Zain’s assets there for US$10.7bn. A sale of its towers would help it reduce its debt load, which stood at about US$9.7bn as of 30 September.
The African tower market has seen a flurry of activity with MTN, Orange and Etisalat also looking to divest themselves of such infrastructure.
In Nigeria alone, three sales processes are currently ongoing. Etisalat has hired Standard Bank for the sale of its sites in the country, while MTN mandated Citi.
In Egypt, Orange is in the process of offloading the towers held by its Mobinil subsidiary. A telecoms banker said the deal could complete in Q1 2014.
Terry Rhodes, co-founder of Eaton Towers, told the audience at the recent TelecomFinance 2014 Conference that the number of sites on offer in Africa now exceeded what local tower companies could buy, with around 40,000 towers on the block.
“None of us can do 40,000 towers, so if there is anybody out there wanting an equity or debt play in this market, now is a good time to come and talk to us,” he told delegates.
“There’s room for more financial institutions, there’s probably not room for more tower companies – we’ve done all the ground work.”
