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Airtel Divests African Towers To Helios [DealCurry (India)](DealCurry (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) @Bharti_Airtel_Li Limited has monetised its towers in Africa divesting approximately 3,100 towers of the 15,0000020to HTA in four countries across its African operations. The deal size was undisclosed. As per the deal tower operations-related personnel will be transferred from Airtel to HTA, however Airtel will have full access to the towers from HTA under a long term lease contract. Deal would help Airtel deleverage through debt reduction which stands at $10 Bn and reduced ongoing capital expenditure whereas for HTA it will expand its tower coverage in Africa to over 7,800 owned towers. Post transaction, HTA will own c. 7,800 towers, the largest number held by an independent company focused exclusively on Africa. At present, HTA operates in Ghana, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. HTA being solely focused on providing telecoms infrastructure solutions, helps its customers to reduce operating cost improving uptime, preserving capital, focusing on their core business, and mitigating the proliferation of towers through infrastructure sharing, as they expand network coverage and capacity to meet demand. Being operational since 2009, the company counts Helios Investment Partners, Quantum Strategic Partners, Albright Capital Management, RIT Capital Partners and the International Finance Corporation among its investors. Bharti had entered the region by acquiring Zain's operations in 2010 and the buyout is the major reason behind the company's fat debt. Bharti's African operations have been in losses and the company has around 86 million subscribers in the region. With a market cap of INR 1,322 Bn, Airtel had revenues of INR 499 Bn and PAT of INR 66 Bn for the last fiscal. The company had recently acquired Loop Mobile, Mumbai-based mobile service provider controlled by the Khaitan family, in a deal estimated at around INR 7,000 Mn. Recent deals in this space: Aditya Birla Group's Idea Cellular had alloted 51.8 Mn equity Shares on a preferential basis to Axiata Investments 2 (India) Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad, Malaysia) raising INR 7,500 Mn. Russian telecom operator Sistema was planning to hike its stake in the local subsidiary. Vodafone Plc, the UK parent of the telecom major had bought the stakes held by billionaires Ajay Piramal and Analjit Singh. (c) 2014 EagleEye Research & Media Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |