Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has sold more than 4,800 mobile sites in Nigeria to American Tower.
The company did not share financial details.
Airtel will be the anchor tenant on the portfolio under a lease with a ten-year initial term.
The strategy of Airtel is to reduce Opex and Capex in its telecom business through infrastructure sharing.
Christian de Faria, chief executive officer of Bharti Airtel Africa, said: “The 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 expenditures on passive infrastructure in Nigeria.”
American Tower last week announced its decision to buy telecom towers from Telecom Italia as well.
Jim Taiclet, chief executive officer of American Tower, said: “With the largest population and economy in Africa and relatively underdeveloped wireless infrastructure, we view Nigeria as a tremendous growth opportunity. Further, we expect this investment to support our long-term objective of generating double-digit AFFO per share growth for our stockholders.”
On 21 November, American Tower announced its deal to buy approximately 5,240 towers in Brazil from Telecom Italia for nearly $1.2 billion.
American Tower anticipates that the towers will generate nearly $171 million in annual run rate revenues, and nearly $75 million in annual gross margin. TIM Brazil, a subsidiary of Telecom Italia, will be the anchor tenant on each portfolio under leases with 20-year initial terms.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
