Bharti Airtel is making headway on its African tower sales, announcing today that it has now completed 60% of its transactions, reaping US$1.7bn in proceeds. The company has so far split its sales among the major independent towercos: Eaton Towers, IHS, American Tower and Helios Towers Africa.
India’s Bharti Airtel (NSE:BHARTIARTL) has announced further African tower sales, stating that it had so far sold 8,300 towers worth US$1.7bn. The company is in the process of disposing towers in all 17 of its African markets.
“As on date we have completed the sale transactions in seven countries for approximately 8,300 towers representing close to 60% of the total tower base,” the company stated, adding that the proceeds would be used to pay down its US$10.49bn debt pile.
Bharti did not disclose which markets it had most recently exited.
Independent towerco Eaton Towers has recently closed three separate infrastructure deals in Ghana, Uganda and Kenya with Bharti, and is working on another two, believed to be Burkina Faso and Niger, which could close imminently.
Separately, it is understood that Helios Towers Africa is back in talks with Bharti about buying 3,100 sites in Tanzania and Chad, having walked away in June.
Last week, Airtel announced that its agreed Malawi tower sale to Eaton had “lapsed and therefore stands terminated.”
Tower experts pointed out that it was common for parties to set timetables for deals, but then return to talks starting where they had left off.
Airtel had initially hoped to sell all of its African towers in one go, but has since had to take a lengthy and complicated country by country approach.
According to Bharti’s last announcement in July, it had completed disposals worth “over US$1.3bn” in five markets, adding that it was on track to completing another six in the coming months.
That month, American Tower said it had closed its US$1.05bn purchase of 4,700 Nigerian towers from Bharti.