African towerco IHS is confident it has the financial resources to expand in all territories in which it operates and enter new markets, according to head of M&A and corporate finance Steve Howden.
“IHS is a company that wants to grow and it’s…
African towerco IHS is confident it has the financial resources to expand in all territories in which it operates and enter new markets, according to head of M&A and corporate finance Steve Howden.
“IHS is a company that wants to grow and it’s within our remit to do that,” Howden told TelecomFinance.
“We have significant growth plans in all of our territories and there’s significant capital arrived to help these plans come to fruition.”
European investment group Wendel announced last October that it would invest US$125m in IHS, giving it a 25% stake in the company. Howden explained how the funds supported IHS’ acquisition of towers from MTN in Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire for US$284m, agreed last year, and said the company has the support of the investment group for future projects.
“We’ve enjoyed these last few months with them and we look forward to working with them for a long, long time to come,” he said.
Howden added that he expects Africa to “be a rich vein of transactions” for the next year, if not longer, noting that there are still a lot of countries with low penetration rates and looking to deploy high-speed networks.
“There are regulators asking companies such as ourselves to come into countries to help roll out networks.”
Howden said IHS is open to opportunities across the continent, adding that it plans to assess them on a case-by-case basis.
Given that the tower sector is currently enjoying positive headlines worldwide, he said the company is able to attract leading investors internationally. There are also plenty of Africa-based funds that are keen to do deals within the sector, he said.
“And on the debt side, there are plenty of local banks in key jurisdictions that are keen to be involved in things we like to look at. The money is around for the right opportunities.”
IHS owns about 3,000 towers across Africa and manages 5,000.
