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Bharti Airtel to get USD 700mn from sale of 3,500 African telecom towers to Eaton Towers [IntelliNews - Weekly Reports](IntelliNews - Weekly Reports Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The price at which India's telecoms group Bharti Airtel will sell and lease back more than 3,500 telecoms towers in six African countries to telecom infrastructure company Eaton Towers was agreed at USD 700mn, Kenya's Business Daily reported without specifying how it got the information. The 10-year deal was officially announced by the two companies on September 8, but neither the price of the deal nor the names of the six countries were disclosed. According to the daily, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana are three of the six countries. The Business Daily claims also that under the agreement, Bharti's Kenyan unit, Airtel Kenya will get KES 19.5bn (USD 219.2mn) from the sale of its 1,100 mobile towers to Eaton. According to Peter Reinartz, managing director, at Eaton Towers Kenya, the sale agreement will be concluded in the coming months. There is a wider shift in Africa towards co-location and leasing mobile communications towers from independent tower operators, as the maintenance of towers is typically more expensive than in other regions because of security costs and electricity shortages. Earlier this month, South Africa-based telecoms group MTN agreed to transfer the operation of its 9,151 mobile network towers in Nigeria to Nigeria-based mobile infrastructure company IHS Holding. Last month, UAE's state-owned telecoms group Etisalat agreed to sell and lease back its 2,136 towers in Nigeria to IHS. In July, Airtel agreed to sell 3,100 telecom towers in 4, also unnamed, African countries to Helios Towers Africa (HTA). Media reports have suggested that France's Orange is in talks to sell a number of towers in Sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt. (c) 2014 Emerging Markets Direct Media Holdings LLC Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |