Airtel sells 3,500 towers in Africa to Eaton Towers

Bharti Airtel on Monday said it has sold over 3,500 telecom towers in Africa to Eaton Towers.

As part of the deal, Airtel will sell and lease back over 3,500 towers to Eaton in 6 countries across its African operations under a 10-year contract.

The company said this agreement 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.

The financial details of the deal, however, were not disclosed. “The agreement with Eaton Towers is an extension of this philosophy and will lead to far superior utilisation of passive infrastructure and help drive the proliferation of affordable mobile services across Africa,” Bharti Airtel International Netherlands BV Chairman Manoj Kohli said in a statement.

The deal follows Airtel’s and Eaton Towers’ strategies to drive cost efficiencies throughout the industry via the use of shared passive infrastructure.

For Eaton Towers, the acquisition is a step towards the scale needed to provide shared telecom infrastructure solutions, with its customers benefiting from lower operating costs, expanded network coverage and capacity and improved quality of service.

The agreements are subject to statutory and regulatory approvals in the respective countries, the statement added.

“This is a transformational deal which gives Eaton Towers the most diversified tower portfolio across Africa. We are proud to be chosen by Airtel as their key partner in these 6 countries,” Eaton Towers CEO Alan Harper said.