Bharti Airtel has announced a deal with IHS Holding Ltd to sell 1,100 telecom towers across two countries, Zambia and Rwanda.
This is part of Airtel's efforts to focus on its core business and customers, enable it to deleverage through debt reduction. The move is aimed at reducing its ongoing capital expenditure on passive infrastructure in these African markets.
Commenting on the development, Christian de Faria, MD & CEO – Africa, Bharti Airtel, said in a statement, “This agreement will accelerate infrastructure sharing amongst operators and benefit customers in the form of affordable tariffs and wider network coverage.”
Issam Darwish, Executive Vice-Chairman and Group CEO of IHS, commented, “The opportunity to expand our East African business bringing IHS’ market leading energy and infrastructure management practices to a wider market is an excellent opportunity. ”
Earlier, Airtel had sold 4,800 telecom towers in Nigeria to American Tower Corp for about $1 billion. It had divested another 3,500 telecom towers from its African operations to Eaton Towers. In July, Bharti Airtel had signed an agreement with Helios Towers Africa, a firm owned by a consortium of investors, to sell towers across four countries in Africa.