Airtel-Malawi says deal to sell tower business to Eaton Towers lapses

Airtel Malawi on Friday announced the termination of an agreement to sell its tower business in Africa to Eaton Towers as announced on 8 September 2014.

Airtel operates 3,500 telecom towers in six countries across Africa on a 10-year lease contract basis.

Bharti Airtel said in a filing with stock exchanges that the agreement for sale of tower assets in Africa between Bharti Airtel Malawi Holdings and Eaton Towers (Lilongwe) has lapsed and therefore stands terminated but agreements with other five countries are moving as per plan.

Eaton Towers, a leading independent telecoms tower company in Africa, and Bharti Airtel which has operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, had on 8 September 2015 announced an agreement for the acquisition of over 3,500 telecoms towers by Eaton Towers from Airtel.

For Eaton Towers, owned and operates towers in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa, the acquisition would have been a major step towards the scale needed to provide shared telecom infrastructure solutions.

An expanded telecom tower network would have benefited customers through lower operating costs, expanded network coverage and capacity and improved quality of service.

The agreement also allowed Airtel to reduce its debt and focus on its core business and customers as also significantly reduce its on-going capital expenditure on passive infrastructure.

The agreement was, however, subject to statutory and regulatory approvals in the respective countries.