The apparent award of an enormous tower leasing deal to American Tower Corporation (ATC) by operator MTN Nigeria is facing a challenge from ousted rival bidder IHS Holding.
In early September we reported that MTN Nigeria had confirmed that, after a bidding process, ATC was to take over MTN’s Nigerian tower operations from IHS in 2025 after the leasing on 2,500 sites expired.
The mobile network operator suggested at the time that the deal would diversify its towers portfolio and unlock significant network cost efficiencies.
It seems that the story is not over yet, however. Reuters says IHS has now offered improved commercial terms to MTN Nigeria for the lease of the 2,500 towers. According to IHS, the move will prevent network disruption in Nigeria – presumably, though this is not made clear, because it would involve no changeover.
So what has inspired this move? MTN Nigeria has other tower contracts coming up for renewal, which may be part of the reason. Reuters says IHS owns 16,000 towers in Nigeria, of which 14,600 are leased by MTN. About 13% of MTN’s portfolio is with ATC, and 80% with IHS.
Also IHS is trying to manage a number of shareholder disputes over governance issues that haven’t been helped by the ATC deal. In fact we reported in September that the leadership of IHS had come under fire from investment firm Blackwells Capital after MTN’s decision to transfer the operation of its towers in Nigeria from IHS to ATC. Further complicating matters is that MTN Group is the largest shareholder in IHS and among the groups in dispute with the company.
As for this new bid on the 2,500 towers, the terms do not seem to have been revealed. In any case MTN has apparently said that the agreement with ATC is final.
