MTN South Africa sells its towers for R6.4 billion - plans to buy spectrum with the money

[Jan]

MTN sells its towers in South Africa

MTN has announced that its South African division has finalised a transaction to sell and leaseback 5,709 of its towers—comprising around 4,000 greenfield and 1,700 rooftop sites—to IHS Towers for about R6.4 billion.

Proceeds will be reinvested into strategic growth initiatives, such as securing high demand spectrum frequencies, and providing MTN with additional balance sheet flexibility, the company said in a statement published to the JSE SENS service.

 

[The_MAC]

Good move

 

[m4tic]

Very smart

 

[Fjorko]

There's that acronym again :

BBBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBBBBEEEEBEBEBBBEEEEEEE

 

[upup]

Good move

May I ask why you say good move. CellC was using American tower company, don't know what happen to them.
This company looks like Nigerian own and run by libanees guys.

 

[The_MAC]

May I ask why you say good move. CellC was using American tower company, don't know what happen to them.
This company looks like Nigerian own and run by libanees guys.

It costs a lot of money to maintain physical infrastructure, rather spend that money on their core business, which is to provide telecommunication services.

Sure, the cost is till there, they have to lease back space on the masts - but they are essentially transferring ownership and ultimately responsibility/risk to the new owner.

If they want to remove infrastructure off of a particular mast for whatever reason, they simply don't renew the lease and move on - no need to keep maintaining something they do not need - it provides flexibility

Oh, and ATC still own Cell-C's old masts - business as usual - same model as the one above

 

[EvoX]

So how many towers do MTN still own?
1 million per tower is probably what MTN paid 7-8 years ago.

 

[Sapphiron]

Towers can be a lot more profitable if it can be rented to multiple cell and wireless providers.

This makes it easier to do.

 

[The_MAC]

Towers can be a lot more profitable if it can be rented to multiple cell and wireless providers.

This makes it easier to do.

That's basically what every tower owner already does