Helios Towers, a telecom infrastructure firm, is interested in investment opportunities in Ethiopia, ITWeb Africa reported. Helios Towers assesses Ethiopia requires $1.5 billion over the next five years to meet installations demand.

According to the company, the $1.5-billion in investment is for tower infrastructure  – these will increase the number of telecoms towers in the country to 10,000 within the period.

Kash Pandya, CEO of Helios Towers, and Tom Greenwood, the company's CFO have confirmed business interest in Ethiopia's towers market. Pandya said Helios Towers is interested in buying existing towers owned by Ethio-Telecom if the state-owned operator intends to sell them.

Since the announcement of its privatization plans for the telecom sector, the Ethiopian government is considering various options for telecom towers including management within Ethio-Telecom, partnership with an independent tower company or a comprehensive sale and leaseback, Helios Towers observes. 

Officially listed on the London Stock Exchange at an IPO of 115 pence in October 2019, Helios Towers but has grown by 21.7 percent to 140 pence on December 12. According to its third-quarter earning reports for 2019, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 16 percent to $52.5 million. Moreover, the company's nine-month revenue was up 8 percent to $288.0 million and adjusted EBITDA up 16 percent to $151.5 million. While quarterly tenant numbers rose by 9 percent to 14,226 tenants, its sites grew by 5 percent to 6,903 total sites.

Now, Helios Towers is looking for growth and expansion opportunities to reinforce its current operations in South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, and Congo-Brazaville.

"We continue to focus on driving top-line growth and adjusted EBITDA performance, leveraging the exciting growth in our sub-Saharan markets, our long term client contracts and a sharp focus on operational excellence. The business is performing in line with our expectations which gives us confidence in the outlook for the full year," the CEO says. Challenges to tower installations include access to land, electricity, security concerns, and currency repatriation.

Ethiopia has nearly 8,000 telecom towers and a standard requirement of a 10 square-meter plot per telecom tower.

Source: ITWeb Africa