Airtel Africa PLC (LON:AAF) sold its mobile tower businesses in Madagascar and Malawi to Helios Towers PLC (LON:HTWS).
The businesses comprise 1,229 towers and are being sold for US$108mln with an additional agreement to build 195 sites across Madagascar and Malawi over the three years for US$11mln.
Airtel Africa has also agreed to sell its Chad and Gabon operations to Helios with final terms to be agreed. The London-listed group has around 1,000 towers in these two countries.
Raghunath Mandava, Airtel’s chief executive, said: “Helios Towers has been a partner to our business in some of the OPCOs for many years and we look forward to further expanding this partnership with these new leases as we together seek to improve mobile connectivity and infrastructure across Africa.
“These transactions will also help to improve the mix of our debt and increase its tenor through long term leases, which are largely payable in local currency by our operating entities, while reducing foreign currency debt of the Group."