IHS Holding Limited has completed the acquisition of 5,701 towers in South Africa from MTN SA.
Under the agreement, IHS Towers is also providing power management services to MTN SA on approximately 13,000 sites, including the acquisition portfolio.
Cash consideration for the Transaction is R6.4 billion, IHS stated. This excludes lease liabilities estimated to be R4.6 billion.
The acquired assets, and the power management services agreement are expected to deliver revenue and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $192 million (R3 billion) and $85 million (R1.3 billion), respectively, in the first full year of operations.
This revenue includes power pass-through on acquired sites that will take time to materialise, IHS stated.
“Note that revenue has been adjusted down when compared to our initial announcement last November as we will only be providing power pass-through on the towers being acquired, and not on those owned by third parties,” the company said.
The transaction has received the necessary regulatory approval from the South African Competition Commission.
IHS Towers will own 70% of the South African Towers business with the remaining 30% to be owned by a B-BBEE consortium.
With this acquisition, IHS said it now has an operational footprint in eleven emerging markets with seven in Africa, in addition to four in Latin America and the Middle East, with a global tower count of nearly 39,000 towers.
