Billionaires - March 2, 2022

Meet Ghanaian billionaire Samuel Jonah who Acquired Airtel Africa Assets for $5.7 million

March 2, 2022

3 min read

This acquisition is to help Helios Towers build up its operations and solidify its position in five additional markets across Africa.

Helios Towers, an Africa-focused independent telecommunication infrastructure chaired by Ghanaian billionaire Samuel Jonah has signed an understanding agreement with Airtel Africa, one of Africa’s leading telecom firms, to allow the acquisition of tower assets in Chad and Gabon.

The consensus was made four months after the telecom company paid $51.7 million to Airtel Africa for 490 tower sites in Madagascar in 2021.

With this expansion, the organisation’s site count is projected to expand from more than 7,300 towers reported in the first quarter of 2021 to 15,000 in 2022.

This acquisition will help Helios Towers build up its operations and solidify its position in five additional markets across Africa and the Middle East in the next 12 months.

In the bid to expand, the telecom plans to buy 2,890 tower sites in Oman from the Oman Telecommunications Company for $575 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 or the first quarter of 2022.

The agreement, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, was led by Ghanaian billionaire Samuel Jonah. This is, however, subject to regulatory approval, passive infrastructure licenses in each nation, and other customary closing conditions.

Currently, the organisation maintains telecom tower sites in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, and Madagascar.

Due to the addition of Free Senegal’s tower property and constant organic tenant growth in its markets, its sites enlarged from 7,222 to 8,765, while the revenue grew by 6%, from $307.9 million to $326.8 million in the first nine months of 2021.

In a memorandum circulated by Airtel Africa, the telecom and Helios Towers reached a consensus not to extend the memorandum of understanding for the tower assets in Chad, which expired on February 24, 2022.

However, the memorandum of understanding for the Gabon assets, with completion still pending Helios Towers obtaining a passive infrastructure license, has been extended.