MTN, IHS seal deal to sell, lease back 5,700 towers

The deal, which is said to be worth $412 million, will make IHS the largest independent tower operator in South Africa.

Of the 5,709 towers comprising the deal, around 4,000 are greenfield locations, with the remaining 1,700 being rooftop sites.

As part of the deal, IHS will provide MTN with power-as-a-service using roughly 12,800 sites across South Africa, including those recently acquired from MTN.

“Although, we have expanded into new regions over the last two years, this agreement is testament to our continued commitment to facilitating mobile connectivity across the African continent,” said IHS chairman and CEO, Sam Darwish, said while speaking on the deal.

“With this transaction and our partnership with the Egypt Digital Company for Investment as announced last month, IHS now has a footprint in seven African markets, in addition to our four newer markets in Latam and MENA.”

IHS Towers claims to be fourth largest independent tower company in the world, trailing American Tower (216,911 towers), Cellnex (89,237), and SBA (34,072).

The company’s delayed IPO launched on the US stock market last month, raising $378 million, with the company’s value climbing towards $8 billion.