Eaton Towers, the African towerco headquartered in London, is in talks with investors to raise a further US$200m to expand its business.
Co-founder Terry Rhodes told TelecomFinance that the company had appointed Lazard as an advisor for the fundraising…
Eaton Towers, the African towerco headquartered in London, is in talks with investors to raise a further US$200m to expand its business.
Co-founder Terry Rhodes told TelecomFinance that the company had appointed Lazard as an advisor for the fundraising but would not reveal a timeline for discussions.
However he did say he expected the investors to be private equity firms.
“Talks are underway,” said Rhodes. “We want the funding to expand our existing business and also to increase our geographical footprint in Africa.”
Rhodes went on to say that the company had used up a previous US$150m cash injection from Capital International Private Equity Funds (CIPEF) within a year and a quarter, but that the pace of the business was increasing and he expected to spend the US$200m within a year, due to plentiful opportunities in Africa.
Most recently, Eaton acquired towers in Uganda in two transactions. In March, the towerco announced the acquisition of 280 from Orange Uganda. Just days later it agreed to buy another 400 towers in the country from Warid Telecom.
Eaton Towers currently also operates towers in Ghana, South Africa and Kenya. “I’d like to be in seven or eight countries in the continent,” said Rhodes.
He would not disclose which countries in particular Eaton Towers was targeting, but did mention that he saw opportunities in the Ivory Coast, Egypt and Nigeria among others.
“For a market to be attractive to us, you typically need a minimum of three operators and at least 500 towers to make a scalable business,” he said.
