Standard Bank has been appointed as the advisor for the planned sale of transmitter towers belonging to Etisalat in Nigeria. The value of the infrastructure is about $400 million.
Standard Bank is Africa’s largest lender and hired due to its local presence and expertise in the African country, two sources told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter was yet to be made public.
Standard Bank is in the process of helping identify potential buyers for the business, the sources said.
Etisalat is estimated to own about 2,500 towers in Nigeria. Towers are often valued at around $150,000 each, making 2,500 potentially worth up to about $400 million. Nigeria is an attractive market for tower firms as it has 169 million people and a relatively low mobile penetration of 68 percent.
Etisalat has a 40 per cent stake in Etisalat Nigeria, while Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala owns a 30 per cent stake. The telecoms firm agreed to buy Vivendi’s 53 per cent stake in Maroc Telecom for $5.7 billion in November.
It would be recalled that in December, MTN Group, Africa’s largest telecom, agreed to over 1,200 mobile towers in Rwanda and Zambia to IHS, as part of a strategy to dispose of some of its infrastructure to focus on products and services.
