MTN Hires Citi, Standard Bank for South African Towers Deal

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — MTN Group Ltd. appointed Citigroup Inc. and Standard Bank Group Ltd. to advise on a sale and lease back of some of the carrier’s South African telecom towers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Africa’s largest mobile-phone company by sales is looking to raise between 5 billion rand ($333 million) and 10 billion rand from the deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is ongoing. The Johannesburg-based firm will seek to attract interest from specialist tower companies operating on the continent, they said.

MTN hasn’t made a final decision about the scope or timing of the sale, the people said. The shares pared early gains to trade 0.7% higher as of 3:54 p.m. in Johannesburg, and are down 23% over the 12-month period.

MTN, Citi and Standard Bank declined to comment.

The sale of part of MTN’s 13,000-strong South African tower portfolio would go toward the company’s plans to raise 25 billion rand from asset disposals over the next three-to-five years. The carrier exited stakes in tower assets in Ghana and Uganda as part of an earlier sales drive, and last year offloaded a minority interest in e-commerce group Jumia Technologies AG.

Tower companies such as IHS Holding Ltd. and American Tower Corp. have been expanding in Africa to tap rising demand for broadband and take-up of smartphones. South Africa is in the process of rolling out 5G services and boosting rural mobile coverage and is planning to auction a new high-speed internet spectrum in March.

Source: Bloomberg Business News