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Tuesday 9 September 2014

AIRTEL TO SELL AFRICA TOWERS TO EATON


Bharti Airtel Limited, India’s largest mobile-phone carrier has agreed to sell more than 3,500 telecommunications towers in Africa to Eaton Towers Limited.

Bharti Airtel will lease back the towers for 10 years, Bloomberg quoted the companies to have said in a statement yesterday.

London-based Eaton bought the assets, located in six African countries, for almost $1 billion, according to a source.

The deal may help Bharti Airtel reduce debt, which stood at 712.5 billion rupees (about $11.8 billion) at the end of June, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. The company agreed in July to sell more than 3,000 towers in four African countries to Helios Towers Africa, offloading infrastructure that can be more expensive to maintain compared with other parts of the world.
After the purchase, Eaton Towers would own 5,000 towers in seven African countries, according to the statement.

The deal does not include Bharti Airtel’s infrastructure in Nigeria, Bloomberg quoted the unnamed source to have said.

Spokesman for Bharti Airtel, Prem Subedi and Eaton Towers’ Chief Executive Officer, Alan Harper declined to comment on the exact purchase price.
Eaton Towers was advised by Moelis & Co. (MC) on the transaction.

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