China’s three leading mobile operators are to jointly establish a new firm to construct, maintain, and operate their cellular infrastructure, as they face the massive rollout of 4G across the country.

In a filing, the three companies agreed to set up a new firm called China Communications Facilities Services Corporation with a share capital of RMB10 billion (US$1.6 billion).

China Mobile will hold 40 per cent of the venture while rivals China Unicom and China Telecom will each have 30 per cent stakes.

China Mobile said the joint venture will reduce duplication and unnecessary construction of cellular towers, so improving investment efficiency. The country’s largest operator said the move would also enable it to better utilise existing assets.

The Chinese operators announced their intention to set up the venture at the end of April.

Discussions are at a preliminary stage in terms of which assets will be included in the deal, which will handle construction, maintenance and operation of infrastructure.

The three operators do not explicitly mention 4G but all three face a massive project to rollout LTE services across the country.

China’s ZTE has raised its forecast for first half profit as the company says it has maintained strong momentum in its 4G infrastructure operations.

Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company will be between RMB 1 billion and RMB 1.15 billion (US$161 million and US$185 million) in the first six months, an increase of between 223 per cent and 271 per cent from a year earlier, according to the revised guidance published by ZTE.

This is compared with earlier guidance of between RMB 800 million to RMB 1 billion.

In the first six months, 4G infrastructure accounted for an increased proportion of revenue. The company retained its position as the leading vendor of 4G infrastructure to China Mobile, achieving increased market share in the tender this year.

Following the launch of new LTE multiband smartphones this year, the company forecasts that 4G devices will account for 40 per cent of total terminals shipments in 2014.

ZTE expects its business to benefit from the award of FDD-LTE licences in China, and the investment in 4G networks in markets such as Japan and India.

Helios Towers Africa (HTA) has raised US$630 million in new equity resources from existing and new shareholders. The news comes as the company signed a deal to buy 3,100 towers from Bharti Airtel in a deal reputedly worth around US$2 billion.

Existing shareholders including: Quantum Strategic Partners, Helios Investment Partners, Albright Capital Management, RIT Capital Partners and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), all added to their current stakes and are now joined by new shareholders Providence Equity Partners and IFC African, Latin American, and Caribbean Fund.

HTA also expects to complete negotiations shortly on new and extended debt facilities amounting to of over US$350 million with a syndicate of international and local lending institutions.

Following this latest injection of capital into the business, HTA will have raised over US$1.8 billion in external financing since inception in late 2009 to fund acquisitions and organic growth.

HTA estimates that there is a need for 100,000 towers in Africa to merely satisfy demand for 2G coverage and associated capacity demand over the next five years. This towers requirement is underpinned further by the growing demand for 3G and 4G data, which is driving the need for significant additional infrastructure capacity and in-fill across the continent.

As a result of the recently announced transaction with Bharti Airtel, HTA is, on an owned-tower basis, the largest tower company in Africa, with over 7,800 owned towers.

Zain Iraq says that a US$4.5 billion lawsuit against the company has been dismissed by the local courts.

In April, Zain was issued the lawsuit that stemmed from its 2007 acquisition of an Iraqi mobile network operator Iraqna.

In a statement, Zain confirmed that it had received the lawsuit last August from Korek Telecom, which alleges that Zain’s purchase of Iraqna blocked its own rival offer.

Zain acquired Iraqna for US$1.2 billion from Orascom Telecom, having been providing mobile telephony in Iraq since December 2003 (previously under the name of MTC-Atheer). In August 2007, the company acquired a 15-year nationwide licence for US$1.25 billion, and shortly thereafter acquired Iraqna.

On January 5, 2008 Zain Group merged Atheer with Iraqna under the brand name Zain.

As a consequence of the lawsuit, an Iraqi court had ruled that revenues from the Iraqna part of the merged company had to be placed into a holding account and not released pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

As the lawsuit has now been dismissed, Zain confirmed that it can apply to have those revenues released by the court.

Korek Telecom has two weeks to appeal.

Bharti Airtel has announced plans to sell around 3,100 telecom towers in four countries to Helios Towers.

Airtel, which has been looking to sell towers in its African portfolio for a while did not say which countries the sales took place in, nor how much the deal is worth.

However, a sale of that volume is thought to be worth up to US$2 billion, which Airtel said it would be using to repay debt.

The deal will expand Helios Towers’ tower coverage in Africa to over 7,800 owned towers.

As standard, Helios will take on a lease from Airtel as the lead tenant, and will then sublet capacity to rival networks.