FOR the financial year ended June 2011, Swap Technologies and Telecoms Plc has said that the company recorded a N421 profit in the last 18 months period ending in June 30, 2011.Specifically, Swap, which operates and leases tower space to wireless telecommunications companies in Nigeria, with subsidiary companies in Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire, noted that the financial year covers from January 2010 to June 2011.Speaking at the yearly general meeting in Lagos at the weekend, the Chairman, Mr. Godwin Adokpaye informed that 90 per cent of the company's revenue came from telecoms infrastructure sharing.He explained that, the company's fixed assets grew to N15 billion from N1.8 billion in 2009, with the acquisition financed with debt capital resulting in high interest expenses, adding that operationally, Swap technologies and telecoms plc achieved an operating profit of N421million in the period.Adokpaye added that the company's turnover increased by 98 per cent from N2.04 billion in 2009 to N4.1billion in June 2011.He noted that the company grew its tower portfolio to over 700 sites in the period, up from the 150 sites in 2009.Explaining further, he said the company's geometric tower asset growth, among others came from a concluded sale and leaseback transaction with Starcomms in 2010 in which 407 sites were acquired under a 15-year lease.Adokpaye said the transaction was financed with a loan from Afreximbank, adding that it positioned the company as one of the key players in the telecoms infrastructure business in Nigeria.In his remarks, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Tunde Titilayo recalled that Swap's entry into the co-location business was based on two sale and lease back transactions with two Code Division Multiple Access companies, ZoomMobile in 2009 and Starcomms in 2010.He predicted the entry of a number of international tower companies into the Nigerian telecoms space in 2012, adding that more tower sale and lease back transactions would occur in the country next year.'We expect international tower companies to enter into the space in Nigeria in 2012 as the telecoms industry mature and operators seek to fully outsource their infrastructure to third parties,' he said.Titilayo's expectation, according to experts, is in line with the global trend, via-a-vis tower sale and lease back, and it is expected to continue in 2012.But he lamented that the poor financial performance of the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators in the country, the company's services and revenue were slightly affected.He said, 'the CDMA companies have not fared well in comparison to the GSM operators as they have struggled with declining business and operating losses leading to the exit of the likes of Telkom of South Africa from Multilinks, a major CDMA operator.'In view of the fact that a major part of our revenue is coming from the CDMA sector, their operations have a direct impact on our company. However, in 2010/2011 we have diversified our revenue base and added more GSM and WiMAX tenants on our towers across the country and we currently have them on more than half of our towers and this figure is increasing monthly.'He noted that this trend would continue in 2012 as GSM companies grapple with quality of service, coverage and capacity issues, adding that the deployment of 3G services would require more towers and boost infrastructure sharing in the country.
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