Airtel Divests Telecoms Tower Assets to Helios Towers

Bharti Airtel Limited (“Airtel”), a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, and Helios Towers Africa (“HTA”), the leading independent telecoms towers company in Africa, have entered into an agreement for the divestment of approximately 3,100 telecoms towers from Airtel to HTA.

Under the agreement, Airtel will divest approximately 3,100 towers to HTA in four countries across its African operations, which will expand HTA’s tower coverage in Africa to over 7,800 owned towers.

The deal will help Airtel deleverage  through debt reduction and reduced ongoing capital expenditure.

This also follows Airtel’s and HTA’s strategies to drive cost efficiencies throughout the industry, the promotion of passive infrastructure and to mitigate against the proliferation of towers.

Also, Airtel will have full access to the towers from HTA under a long term lease contract.

The agreement also envisages that tower operations-related personnel will be transferred from Airtel to HTA

The agreements while allowing Airtel to focus on its core business and customers, would also enable   it to deleverage through debt reduction, and will significantly reduce its ongoing capital expenditure on passive infrastructure.

HTA being solely focused on providing  telecoms infrastructure solutions, helps its customers to achieve their goals of reducing 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 and improve quality of service.

However, the agreement is subject to statutory and regulatory approvals in the respective countries.

Commenting on the development, Manoj Kohli, chairman, Bharti Airtel International Netherlands BV (BAIN), said: “The agreement is another milestone in Airtel’s growth journey in Africa. Airtel pioneered the concept of a separate tower entity to promote infrastructure sharing in India and this agreement is a continuation of that philosophy.

"It is an important step towards the consolidation of tower assets across Africa that will drive industry-wide cost efficiencies through infrastructure sharing.

"The agreement will further help in accelerating the growth of telecom services in the Continent and at the same time benefit the environment by avoiding duplication of infrastructure.”

On his part, Chuck Green, chief executive officer of HTA, added: “HTA is proud to be chosen by Airtel as its partner for the ownership and management of its existing infrastructure.

"This is a ground-breaking move for HTA and Airtel’s decision is a significant endorsement of HTA’s reputation, management team and operating track record.”