Jazz, a subsidiary of VEON and Global Telecom Holding (GTH) in Pakistan, will be selling its tower company Deodar for $940 million to Tanzanite Tower.
Tanzanite Tower, which is owned by edotco Group and Dawood Hercules Corporation, will be getting Deodar’s approximately 13,000 telecom towers.
The enterprise value of the telecom tower business in Pakistan represents a high single digit multiple of contributed annual EBITDA, a significant premium to current VEON and GTH trading multiples.
Deodar will enter into a master services agreement (MSA) with Jazz to provide tower services to Jazz for an initial term of 12 years. The terms can be renewed at Jazz’s discretion for three consecutive periods of five years each.
“This transaction is highly value accretive for VEON and GTH and a further execution of VEON’s asset light strategy,” said Jean-Yves Charlier, chief executive officer of VEON.
VEON will utilize the proceeds from the tower transaction for Jazz’s general corporate purposes, the funding of recently awarded spectrum and repayment of a proportion of Jazz’s outstanding debt.
VEON will receive $666 million cash of $760 million at closing, while the balance will be received within 12 months later.
Suresh Sidhu, chief executive officer of edotco, said the strategy of edotco is to expand its business in Pakistan by catering to the network requirements of Jazz, the country’s number one digital communications company.
As a result of the terms of the Jazz/Warid earn-out agreement, GTH’s equity stake in Jazz will be approximately 83 percent after the completion of the transaction.
