India’s Bharti Airtel has completed the sale of its tower assets in Burkina Faso to independent towerco Eaton Towers, bringing its total number of masts divested in Africa to 9,000.
India’s Bharti Airtel (NSE:BHARTIARTL) has completed the sale of its tower assets in Burkina Faso to independent towerco Eaton Towers.
Airtel, which is in the process of divesting towers in all 17 of its African markets to help cut debt, said in a joint statement with Eaton that it has now sold 9,000 towers in eight countries on the continent. Of these, Eaton, advised by Moelis, has purchased 2,500 towers in four countries: Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and now Burkina Faso.
Airtel has signed 10-year tenancy agreements with Eaton in each of these four markets.
“Negotiations between Eaton and Airtel continue as Airtel remains committed to divesting its tower portfolio in other countries,” the Indian telco said, adding that the sale will enable it to focus on its core business, deleverage and cut capital expenditure on passive infrastructure.
Airtel CEO for Africa, Christian De Faria, commented: “We are pleased to close this fourth transaction with Eaton Towers and we continue to explore other opportunities to work together.”
Eaton Towers CEO Terry Rhodes said the Bharti purchases, together with its agreement to buy 2,000 towers from Mobinil in Egypt, bring its total number of masts to 6,000. Eaton also has towers in South Africa.
“We value the partnership with Airtel and have improved the operating performance in each of the portfolios we have acquired,” Rhodes added.
In mid-October, Airtel revealed that its agreement to sell towers in Malawi to Eaton had lapsed and therefore been 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.
A few days after announcing the collapse of the Malawi deal, Airtel announced further African tower sales, saying it had sold 8,300 towers worth US$1.7bn. However, it did not disclose which markets it had most recently exited.