MTN Group, Bharti Airtel and Orange are planning to sell mobile tower networks in Africa, the latest examples of telecom operators looking to reduce exposure to costly infrastructure in the region, according to people familiar with the matter.
MTN, based in Johannesburg, was selling towers valued at $1bn in Nigeria, and Bharti of India was selling about 15,000 of its towers across 17 countries for $2bn to $2.5bn, said the people, who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private.
Orange, France’s biggest phone company, was looking at disposing of towers in sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt, they said.
Bharti’s sale was likely to result in a split of the towers between multiple buyers, one of the people said. Carriers in Africa are offloading the assets, which cost more to run on the continent than in other parts of the world because of the need for backup generators and batteries to guard against power failures.
Towers and the infrastructure that accompanies them can account for more than 60% of the expense to build a mobile network, according to data from tower company IHS Holding.
IHS, American Tower Corporation, units of Helios Towers and Eaton Towers were considering acquisitions of the MTN and Bharti assets, one of the people said.
These companies, backed by cash from wealthy investors including billionaire George Soros and Goldman Sachs Group, have bought thousands of towers from carriers in the region in the past two years. Partially owned by a Goldman Sachs-led consortium, IHS, which provides mobile phone infrastructure and services, has agreed to buy about 3,000 towers from MTN in Rwanda, Zambia, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast since 2012.
Vodacom Group, Vodafone’s African operator, agreed to sell 1,149 phone towers in Tanzania to Helios Towers Africa, backed by Mr Soros, in July.
