African tower ownership and management company Eaton Towers has secured equity funding worth $150 million.
The funding will be used to acquire, build and develop telecoms towers across Africa for both existing and new projects.
The company says the funding was acquired from Capital International Private Equity Funds, a private equity investor that focuses on emerging markets.
Alan Harper, chief executive of Eaton Towers, says the funding will give further momentum to the company's efforts to become a major independent provider of shared tower facilities across Africa.
“We expect to raise significant additional debt on the back of this new equity commitment.”
The funding will enable Eaton Towers to buy additional tower portfolios from operators, and build new towers on which it will sell co-location and shared-infrastructure facilities to mobile operators.
Tower sharing is a highly cost-effective way for African operators to reach subscribers, with building and operating costs typically shared across multiple tenants, according to Eaton.
“Tower sharing benefits everyone involved. Operators can increase coverage and quality of service while cutting capital investment and operating costs. At the same time, subscribers benefit from the increased competition of operators sharing the same tower which also improves coverage,” says Harper.
In October 2010, Eaton Towers signed a 10-year contract to take over the operations and co-location management of 750 telecom towers for Vodafone Ghana.
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