from OKORO CHINEDU in Lagos , Nigeria
LAGOS, (CAJ News) – MTN Group will exchange its majority shareholding in Nigeria Tower InterCo B.V., the parent company of INT Towers , for an additional shareholding in IHS Holding.
MTN has a 51 percent interest in the Nigerian tower operator.
As a result of the Transaction, MTN’s economic interest in IHS Group will increase from approximately 15 percent to approximately 29 percent.
In exchanging all of its interest in INT in Nigeria for additional shares in the pan-African IHS Group, all of MTN’s interest in IHS will sit alongside a group of investors including Wendel, the International Finance Corporation, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Korea Investment Corporation and Emerging Capital Partners among others.
MTN Executive Chairman, Phuthuma Nhleko, said the transaction enabled MTN to simplify its tower ownership structure and diversify its tower infrastructure exposure across the IHS Group, which operates in a number of African markets.
“The transaction represents a significant step in MTN’s long-standing partnership with IHS. It simplifies our ownership structure and diversifies our tower investments across the IHS Group. IHS Group is extremely well positioned for future growth and build-out from 3G upgrades and the move to LTE across its key markets,” said Nhleko.
There are no conditions precedent to the transaction, which is expected to close once new shares in IHS Group have been issued during the current quarter of 2017.
Issam Darwish, Executive Vice Chairman and Group CEO of IHS Group, said the transaction and partnership was transformational for HIS.
“It has allowed us to invest a significant amount of capital to better serve our customers, accelerate our growth and the development of critical telecommunications infrastructure across Africa,”
said Darwish.
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