IHS Towers explained

IHS Towers
Type:Public
Industry:Telecommunications
Founder:Sam Darwish
Area Served:Africa, Latin America, Middle East
Owners:-->

IHS Towers is one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure providers in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East by tower count and the fourth largest independent multinational tower company globally.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Operations

Founded by Sam Darwish in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2001, IHS is a company specializing in building and operating telecommunication infrastructure throughout emerging markets. Following the completion of a sale and lease back agreement with the mobile network operator Zain in Kuwait, and the acquisition of Cell Site Solutions in February 2020, IHS Towers expanded its operations to outside of Africa and now operate across three continents. It is one of the world’s fastest growing tower operators, owning and managing over 39,000 towers in nine countries: Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia - Africa; Brazil, Colombia, Peru – Latin America; and Kuwait – Middle East.[1] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

IHS listed on the NYSE in October 2021 in what was noted as the largest US listing of a company with an African heritage.[12]

The company operates six business models: building its own tower sites and leasing them to operators; acquiring existing MNO sites and leasing tower space back; taking over the management of operators networks with an agreement to lease the sites to other operators: inbuilding solutions and Distributed Antenna System (DAS); Small Cell and Fiber to the Tower.[13] [14] [15]

In November 2021, IHS expanded its fiber offering and closed its acquisition of a 51% stake in FiberCo Solucoes de Infraestrutura from TIM Brasil. The company to acquire MTN South Africa’s towers, and a partnership with EDCI, a subsidiary owned by the Egyptian Government, to build 5,800 towers over the next three years.[16]

IHS increased its use of solar energy and hybrid power systems to reduce its overall emissions, as at December 2020, over 45% of its African operations had solar power available.[16]

Some of the MNOs that IHS works with include: MTN, Orange, Airtel, Etisalat, Millicom, Zain and Vivo.[1] [3] [17] [18]

IHS is heavily involved in bringing broadband internet to the whole of Africa.[19] IHS partners with startup telecom companies such as Spectranet and Smile to help finance the deployment of their network into urban areas.

Aside from its founding partners, UBC, IHS is supported by a group of international shareholders including Emerging Capital Partners, the International Finance Corporation, Wendel, Goldman Sachs, African Infrastructure Investment Managers, Investec, the IFC’s Global Infrastructure Fund, the Dutch development finance institution (FMO) and the Korea Investment Corporation and Singapore sovereign wealth fund, GIC.[20] [21] [22] [23]

The IHS Board includes Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and GOP presidential hopefully, who heads the governance committee; Ursula Burns, the former Xerox CEO and the first Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, who also sits on the Uber and Nestle boards; and Carolina Lacerda, the former head of investments banking of UBS in Brazil.[24]

Competitors

IHS competitors in Africa include Helios Towers and American Tower Corporation.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Zain Kuwait closes US$130mn sale and leaseback deal with IHS Towers. TowerXchange. February 14, 2020. November 3, 2020. July 24, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210724071158/https://www.towerxchange.com/zain-kuwait-signs-us130mn-sale-and-leaseback-deal-with-ihs-towers/. dead.
  2. Smith, Matt. "Africa phone tower firm IHS raises $2.6 billion", Reuters, 3 November 2014. Accessed 16 July 2015.
  3. News: Kuwait's Zain inks $165m mobile towers deal. 14 October 2017. Arabian Business. 2017-12-10. en.
  4. Web site: Africa's biggest mobile tower operator plans New York IPO. Financial Times. September 17, 2021.
  5. Web site: MTN agrees to sell and leaseback 5,700 towers to IHS Towers .
  6. Web site: Nigeria's IHS Towers acquires Brazil's Cell Site Solutions from Goldman Sachs . Nairametrics. December 24, 2019.
  7. Nsehe, Mfonobong. "Nigerian Multi-Millionaire Tycoon Issam Darwish Raises $2.6 Billion For Telecom Towers", Forbes, 11 March 2014. Accessed 13 August 2015
  8. Web site: IHS Towers prepares to IPO. TowerXchange. August 26, 2020. November 4, 2020. May 5, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210505235602/https://www.towerxchange.com/ihs-towers-prepares-to-ipo/. dead.
  9. Thomson, Amy; Spillane, Chritospher. "IHS Said to Pay About $2 Billion for MTN Towers in Nigeria", Bloomberg, 4 September 2014. Accessed 14 August 2015.
  10. http://www.towerxchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/TX_TopTowercos_June1.pdf "Top 141 towercos and infracos worldwide, by estimated tower count"
  11. https://telecoms.com/512211/ihs-towers-coughs-up-413m-for-5700-mtn-sites/
  12. Web site: African mobile mast operator IHS Towers seeks valuation of more than $7bn. Financial Times. October 4, 2021.
  13. Web site: Africa's largest tower company eyes Gulf for growth. Arabian Business. April 4, 2019.
  14. Web site: MTN expands scope of tower service, targets rural connectivity . Nairametrics. July 24, 2020.
  15. http://www.ihstowers.com/innovation/adapting-to-our-region/ "Adapting to our region"
  16. Web site: IHS Towers on their IPO, MTN deal, Brazilian fibre, Egypt entrance and more. Tower Xchange. December 6, 2021. January 12, 2022. September 22, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220922100947/https://www.towerxchange.com/data/Featured/documents/b1vrvbmy2scxhj/ihs-towers-on-their-ipo--mtn-deal--brazilian-fibre--egypt-entrance-and-more. dead.
  17. http://www.orange.com/en/press/Press-releases/press-releases-2013/Orange-and-IHS-sign-tower-leasing-agreement-to-improve-mobile-networks-in-Cote-d-Ivoire-and-Cameroon "Orange and IHS sign tower leasing agreement to improve mobile networks in Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon"
  18. Clark, Simon. "IHS Buys Airtel’s Mobile Phone Towers in Zambia and Rwanda", The Wall Street Journal, 14 December 2014. Accessed 14 August 2015.
  19. Adeptun, Adeyemi. "InfraCos to connect Lagos, 60 cities with broadband", The Guardian Nigeria, 8 April 2015. Accessed 13 August 2015.
  20. Web site: Deal: MTN Says It'll Swap 51% Of Its interest In Nigeria Tower For Additional Stake In IHS . Nairametrics. February 2, 2017.
  21. Smith, Matt. "Africa phone tower firm IHS raises $2.6 billion", Reuters, 3 November 2014. Accessed 14 August 2015.
  22. Blas, Javier. "Goldman Sachs joins scramble for African mobile telecoms", The Financial Times, 2 March 2014. Accessed 14 August 2015.
  23. Rice, Xan. "IHS: Local knowledge is important in fulfilling towering ambitions", The Financial Times, 27 November 2012. Accessed 14 August 2015.
  24. Web site: Sam Darwish, the 'Indiana Jones' of IHS Towers. Brazil Journal . May 10, 2021.

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