American Tower Corporation and Airtel have entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of over 4,800 of Airtel's communications towers in Nigeria. Airtel will be the anchor tenant on the portfolio under a lease with a ten-year initial term. The agreement will allow Airtel to focus on its core business and customers, enable it to deleverage through debt reduction and will significantly reduce its on-going capital expenditures on passive infrastructure in Nigeria.
American Tower and Airtel expect to close the acquisition during the first half of 2015, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval. No financial details of the transaction were disclosed.
Airtel Africa CEO Christian de Faria said the agreement, which is part of a stated philosophy of promoting infrastructure sharing, will provide cost efficiencies and at the same time allows the company to sharpen its focus on the customer. Airtel earlier reached agreements with Eaton and Helios to sell towers in another ten countries in Africa.
