With African tower sales and outsourcing now mainstream transactions, the time has come for consolidation among the independent towercos themselves.
Helios Towers Nigeria (HTN Towers) is exploring a combination of “exciting” exit options that could materialise before the end of the year, a source has told TelecomFinance.
This comes amidst industry chatter around potential consolidation among African independent towercos, as previously reported.
The company last Friday postponed plans for a US$125m London IPO it had announced just two weeks before, after its shareholders [Helios Investment Partners and Shanduka] “received expressions of interest from potential buyers,” according to a statement by HTN chairman Pierre Danon.
In Nigeria, IHS has previously inked deals to outsource 9,151 towers from market leader MTN and to buy 2,136 towers from number three player Etisalat. American Tower, for its part, closed its acquisition of 4,700 towers from number two player Aircel in July.
Other leading independent towercos active in Africa include Eaton Towers and Helios Towers Africa, also in the portfolio of Helios Investment Partners.
Challenging IPO conditions
Other London listings of emerging markets businesses were also facing challenging conditions at the beginning of the month, with Georgia Healthcare Group and Citadele Banka reportedly adjusting deal terms downwards in order to attract investor interest.
But despite pulling the IPO, Danon said his company had been “very pleased with the high level of investor engagement in the IPO process.”
Working on the listing were BofA Merrill Lynch and Citigroup as joint global coordinators, joint bookrunners and underwriters.
Standard Bank and Investec were joint bookrunners and underwriters.
