PE firm Helios attracts investor group to African telecoms tower company

The investor consortium, which also includes the investment groups of billionaire investors Lord Rothschild and George Soros, have committed $350m to form Helios Towers Africa. The company plans to build and maintain telecommunications towers and lease space on them to independent wireless telecommunications operators.

HTA says that by allowing wireless operators to outsource non-core activities and infrastructure development, they will be able to spend more time and capital on improving products and services.  The increased coverage is expected to allow more semi-urban and rural dwellers to get connected.

The mobile telecommunications sector has experienced a large boom on the continent, with sales growing 550 per cent in five years, according to a UN report. An estimated third of the population of sub-Saharan Africa owns a mobile telephone, and an estimated two thirds in North Africa.

Mobile phones in Africa provide solutions to numerous difficulties caused by a lack of infrastructure, offering services like mobile banking and money transfers for people who do not have a bank account. African telecoms operator MTN predicts 80 per cent mobile penetration by 2015.

The company will work on a business model that London private equity firm Helios first tried with Helios Towers Nigeria, which was Africa’s first independent telecoms tower operator. Helios Towers Nigeria recently secured a $250m investment led by the IFC to increase its Nigerian network to 2,000 tower sites nationwide.

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