South African telecoms group MTN is considering selling half of its towers in South Africa in order to focus on its core business, regional managing director Karel Pienaar was quoted telling TechCentral.
In the short-term, MTN would only offload the…
South African telecoms group MTN is considering selling half of its towers in South Africa in order to focus on its core business, regional managing director Karel Pienaar was quoted telling TechCentral.
In the short-term, MTN would only offload the passive components of 3,000 towers but could consider selling the active components too, such as radio communication elements, once LTE networks are in place in South Africa, Pienaar said.
Potential buyers could include Eaton Towers, Helios Towers and American Tower (ATC), which are all active on the African continent.
In December last year, MTN created a joint venture in Uganda with ATC to share the maintenance of existing infrastructure in the country and build new towers. The operator agreed to sell 1,000 towers for up to US$175m to the new combined entity, known as ATC Uganda.
MTN and ATC had already set up a similar partnership in Ghana a year before that.
Other recent tower deals include Eaton Towers buying base stations off Warid Telecom and France Telecom in Uganda in March this year. In 2010, ATC had acquired approximately 3,000 towers in South Africa from mobile operator Cell C for US$430m.
Over the last couple of years, an increasing number of telecoms operators in Africa, but also in Asia, have been considering such sale and lease back deals as a way to streamline their operations while cutting costs.
MTN was not available for comment before the press deadline.
