IHS Towers Completes Acquisition of MTN in South Africa

IHS Holding Limited (NYSE: IHS) announced yesterday it has completed the acquisition of 5,701 towers in South Africa from Mobile Telephone Networks Proprietary Limited (MTN SA), a leading MNO in South Africa. Under the agreement, IHS Towers is also providing power management services to MTN SA on approximately 13,000 sites, including the acquisition portfolio, across South Africa.

At a cost of $4.1 billion, the acquired assets as well as the provision of power management services across MTN SA’s portfolio are expected to deliver revenue and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $192 million and $85 million, respectively, in the first full year of operations. This transaction has received the necessary regulatory approval from the South African Competition Commission. 

The power management services component of the transaction is aligned to IHS Towers’ existing service offering in other African markets. This service will be delivered to the acquired sites, as well as to other third-party sites on which MTN SA is present. This service will primarily involve power systems and security at sites. 

IHS Towers will own 70 percent of the South African Towers business with the remaining 30 percent to be owned by an investor consortium. 

With this acquisition, IHS 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 as reported in Inside Towers.

Sam Darwish, IHS Towers Chairman and CEO, commented: “IHS was founded in Africa and the region continues to be a key anchor for our company. Through this transaction, IHS has now entered the most industrialized economy in Africa as South Africa’s largest independent tower operator. MTN Group has been a long-term partner of IHS, and I am delighted that we will expand that collaboration and facilitate mobile connectivity in South Africa. We will leverage our deep operational excellence and engineering expertise, honed across our other African markets, to meet South Africa’s increasingly sophisticated data demands and expedite the roll-out of new technologies.”