Bharti Airtel has sold its Tanzanian tower operations for $175 million (Rs 1,313 crore) in a bid to focus on asset-light and core subscriber-facing operations, with some of the funds being used to pare debt at the consolidated level.
The latest offloading of tower assets in African countries and a stake sale in mobile money business to Mastercard and TPG has helped Airtel raise about $725 million so far.
Airtel Africa “…announces the sale of the tower portfolio belonging to Airtel Tanzania to a joint venture company owned by a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBA Communications Corporation, a leading global independent owner and operator of wireless communications infrastructure, as majority owner, and by Paradigm Infrastructure Limited, a UK company focused on developing, owning and operating shared passive wireless infrastructure in selected growth markets,” said India’s second-largest telco in a regulatory filing.
This follows a slew of other tower sales by the telco and these infusions will help the telco recharge its finances for its intense battle with Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), and pay statutory dues. Airtel’s consolidated net debt at March end stood at Rs1.5 lakh crore.
“The consideration for the transaction is approximately $175 million of which approximately $157.5million is payable on the first closing date (which is expected to take place in the second half of the Group’s current financial year) with the balance payable in instalments upon the completion of the transfer of any remaining towers to the purchaser,” said Wednesday’s statement.
The tower portfolio in Airtel Tanzania comprises approximately 1,400 towers and from this sale, around $60 million will be used to invest in network and sales infrastructure in Tanzania and for distribution to the Government in that country.
Airtel said its Tanzania unit will continue to develop, maintain and operate its equipment on the towers under a separate lease arrangement with the buyer.
“The transaction is the latest strategic divestment of the Group’s tower portfolio as it focuses on an asset-light business model and on its core subscriber-facing operations…The balance of the proceeds will be used to reduce debt at Group level,” Airtel said.
Earlier in March, the telco had sold its tower units in Madagascar and Malawi to Helios Towers Plc for around $108 million and inked separate pacts with the UK telecom infrastructure company for potential sale of its tower assets also in Chad and Gabon by end FY22. The combined value of these four deals then was estimated to be around $250 million
On a fundraising spree, the Africa unit had in April signed a deal to sell a 3.75% stake in its mobile money operations to global payment processor Mastercard Inc for $100 million. It had in the same month, signed a deal to sell 7.5% stake in its money business to US private equity firm, TPG for $200 million.
