IHS Towers, which describes itself as one of the largest independent owners, operators, and developers of shared telecommunications infrastructure in the world by tower count, just got even bigger after a major acquisition in Brazil.
IHS has signed an agreement to acquire São Paulo Cinco Locação de Torres Ltda (SP5), a Grupo Torresur (GTS) portfolio company.
GTS is one of the leading providers of telecommunications infrastructure in Brazil and SP5’s portfolio includes 2,115 telecommunication towers across Brazil. SP5’s sites are located in 25 of Brazil’s 27 states. SP5 will be integrated into IHS Towers’ existing Brazilian business.
As a result of this deal, IHS Towers will own approximately 7,000 towers in Brazil, in addition to the secondary fibre network covering approximately 6.4 million homes passed that it currently operates.
This transaction is highly relevant to emerging markets. IHS says it forms a key part of its inorganic growth strategy in Latin America as the company seeks to become the leading emerging market telecommunications infrastructure provider.
The acquisition of the GTS’ SP5 portfolio is the fifth IHS transaction since it entered the region two years ago. As Sam Darwish, IHS Towers Chairman and CEO, commented “In the SP5 portfolio there are 2,115 sites strategically located across Brazil, increasing the attractiveness of IHS’ portfolio to our customers, whether in Brazil or across our Latam operations.”
IHS has more than 38,000 towers across its 11 markets, which include Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kuwait, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia.
