IHS secures $52 million investment funding for African tower network expansion

AFRICAN tower network operator, IHS says that it has secured an additional $52 million of funding from ECP and Investec Asset Management through its various public equity frontier markets funds.Several major financial institutions including the International Finance Corporation, FMO, and Stanbic IBTC also participated in the larger $250 million financing that has taken place since June.The announcement follows soon after news that IHS is to open a new office in Kampala, Uganda and has plans to open an office in Nairobi, Kenya, early next year.Chief Executive Officer of IHS commented: 'We have enjoyed growth of more than 70 over the last five years with major customers including MTN, Airtel, Etisalat and other MNOs.''The ambition, however, is to continue our growth trajectory, and further expand the company's existing presence in Nigeria, Ghana, South Sudan, East Africa and several other countries and regions on the continent.IHS started in Nigeria more than 10 years ago and now operates in four countries employing more than 850 staff.It will be recalled that, earlier in August, Visafone Communications Limited, a leading Code Division Multiple Access operator in Nigeria informed that, it sealed a $67 billion infrastructure sharing deal with IHS Nigeria Plc.The strategic partnership, accordingly was expected to lead to significant benefits by enabling Visafone to focus on its core business of providing mobile services and solutions bringing in operational efficiency, and enhanced quality of service to its customers. It will also provide IHS the platform of consolidating its telecom infrastructure business and industry leadership position with more than 800 owned sites under collocation in Nigeria and several thousands of sites under management.Global best practice in mobile telephone business has evolved in the direction of operators increasing operational efficiency by leveraging the sale and leaseback of tower infrastructure, which has led to the rapid growth of telecom infrastructure companies resulting in significant synergies between operators.
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