Helios Towers Africa Secures $350m equity for Expansion

Helios Towers has signed $350Million equity financing contract with Global Investor Group to rollout services to other African countries. The investing group comprised of Soros Strategic Partners LP, RIT Capital Plc, Lord Rothschild’s family interest, Albright Capital Management LLC and fund advised by Helios Investment partners LLP. Helios Towers Africa Ltd will replicate the success story of Helios Towers Nigeria in a number of African countries.
Helios Towers Africa will build fully managed telecommunications towers and lease space on those towers to wireless telecommunications services providers across Africa. It will execute a business model that has been successfully deployed in Nigeria by Helios Towers Nigeria which was formed by HTA’s lead sponsor, Helios Investment Partners.
Helios Towers which is Africa first and largest independent infrastructure sharing, co-location and managed services provider recently secured $250 million IFC-led investment to expand its current over 1,000 fully managed sites portfolio in Nigeria to 2000 in 2010.
Helios Towers will continue its long term plan in Nigeria with massive expansion in 2010 with further investments in the coming years.
Poor telecom funding, according to industry watchers,  has contributed largely to the high cost of doing business in Africa, which at the long run make cost of making calls high for the consumers. Investment in infrastructure such as telecommunications, according to telecom experts, is crucial for Nigeria’s economic development in the 21st century knowledge economy.
With the launch of Helios Towers Africa’s operations across Africa, wireless operators will be able to outsource non-core activities and passive infrastructure, allowing them to focus on capital and managerial resources on improving their core products and services. The deployment of Helios Towers Africa’s fully managed telecoms sites will increase telecommunications coverage, helping operators roll out their services more economically and enabling the extension of affordable mobile services to semi-urban and rural areas. HTA has potentials to support the growth of Africa’s mobile market with its sound emerging market experience.
The initial equity investment of $350 million is expected to position Helios Towers Africa as top global player in the telecommunications industry with base in Africa covering major nations of the continent.
Helios Towers’ mission is to partner with the operators to help them achieve more robust and efficient networks in an environmentally friendly manner. The company recently won Africa’s most prestigious award as best cost efficiency solution for at Africa Com 2009.
Helios Towers Nigeria was established in 2005, the company is the first and the only independent tower outsourcing and management company in Africa. HTN provides build-to suit and collocating tenant options as well as fully managed services. Customers include both GSM and CDMA based operators and service providers utilizing Wi-Fi / WiMax technologies. Given its core focus on managing passive infrastructure HTN consistently provides its customers with market leading uptime levels. Currently, HTN has over 1000 fully managed tower sites and maintains 99.9% service uptime guaranteed.