Bharti Airtel, through its subsidiary company Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV, has inked an agreement to divest over 3,500 telecom towers to Eaton Towers, a telecom tower company, in Africa. According to the agreement, Airtel will sell and lease back about 3,500 towers to Eaton Towers in six African countries for 10 years.
The tower sale will allow Airtel to focus on its core business and enable the company to deleverage while it would also reduce the company?s on-going capital expenditure on passive infrastructure. Meanwhile, acquisition of towers will enable Eaton Towers to expand network coverage to seven countries, with a portfolio of about 5,000 telecom towers.
Earlier in July 2014, Airtel has sold 3,100 telecom towers in four African countries to Helios Towers Africa at a reported value of $800 million.
