African tower management company Eaton Towers has closed a deal with India-based mobile service provider Bharti Airtel that secures it the purchase of over 3 500 towers in six countries across Africa.
Eaton Towers says the sizeable acquisition is a "major step towards the scale needed to provide shared telecoms infrastructure solutions", which it aims to provide customers with lower operating costs, expanded network coverage and capacity and improved quality of service.
Alan Harper, CEO of Eaton Towers, says the deal is transformational.
Manoj Kohli, chairman of Bharti Airtel International Netherlands, says the deal represents the next phase of Airtel's growth journey in Africa. "We are strong proponents of telecoms infrastructure sharing, which results in industry-wide cost efficiencies. The agreement with Eaton Towers is an extension of this philosophy and will lead to superior utilisation of passive infrastructure and help drive the proliferation of affordable mobile services across Africa."
The agreements - which are subject to statutory and regulatory approvals in the respective countries - will allow Airtel to focus on its core business and customers, enable it to deleverage through debt reduction, and will significantly reduce its on-going capital expenditure on passive infrastructure, says the company.
Bharti Airtel will lease back the towers from Eaton under a 10-year contract, the companies said in a statement. They did not disclose financial details of the deal.
In July, Bharti Airtel agreed to sell about 3 100 masts in four African countries to Helios Towers Africa. The sales are part of the Indian group's plan to divest most of its more than 15 000 towers in Africa in a process that sources have said could raise up to $2 billion.
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