Airtel pens towers deals in Malawi and Tanzania

Bharti Airtel has agreed to sell mobile phone towers in Tanzania and Malawi to specialist players Helios Towers and Eaton Towers, according to Reuters.

Sources said around 1,000 towers in Tanzania will go to Helios, while an unknown number of assets in Malawi will be sold to Eaton Towers.

Alan Harper, the chief executive of Eaton, told Reuters that the deals have been signed but not yet closed, adding that it takes time for these kinds of transactions to progress.

Airtel previously agreed to sell 3,100 towers in four countries to Helios, on the back of which Helios raised US$630 million in fresh funding.

Helios claims to be the leading tower player in Africa, with 7,800 towers across Ghana, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Airtel also agreed to sell a further 3,500 towers in six unnamed African countries to Eaton in September. Prior to the deals the Indian operator group owned a total of 15,000 towers on the continent.