MTN has agreed to sell its Ugandan tower business to American Tower by the end of 2020 Q1. The agreement comes after troubles with the regulators in Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana, which forced the company to embark on a 3-year $1 billion Asset Realization Program.
Moreover, exiting the tower business in select countries will allow the operator to refocus on high growth markets.
According to Reuters, the company will exit countries where it has no prospects of achieving top-two spots in market share.
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“MTN has agreed to dispose off its 49% equity holdings in the Ghana and Uganda Tower Company investments to a subsidiary of American Tower Company for $523 million. This transaction is expected to close in Q1 2020,” reads a company statement.
The transaction, however, is subject to approval from regulators.
Further, MTN Nigeria also redeemed its preference shares with the MTN group, receiving $315 million in December 2019.
Upon completion, the two transactions will raise $984 billion within the first twelve months of the program.
Following the completion of these transactions, MTN will have realized proceeds of approximately R14 billion within the first 12 months of this program. Realizing proceeds from simplifying the group remains a major strategic objective and we expect further progress in this program in 2020.
MTN CEO, Rob Shuter.
The company plans to use the proceeds from the transactions to pay off debt and for general corporate purposes.
