Bharti Airtel and American Tower Corporation Announce Agreement for the Sale of Tower Portfolio in Tanzania
March 21 2016 - 7:33AM
Business Wire
Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel) today announced that it has
entered into a definitive agreement with American Tower Corporation
(American Tower) (NYSE: AMT), through its subsidiary company,
Airtel Tanzania Limited, for the sale of approximately 1,350 of its
communications towers in Tanzania. Under the agreement, American
Tower may acquire up to approximately 100 additional sites
currently in development for an additional consideration. Airtel
will be the anchor tenant on the portfolio under a lease with a
ten-year initial term.
Christian de Faria, MD & CEO (Africa), Bharti Airtel, said,
“We are pleased to strengthen our partnership with American Tower
in Africa. The proposed transaction is a continuation of our stated
philosophy of divesting passive infrastructure assets and promoting
sharing of towers to enhance operational efficiencies that will
further the overall growth of telecom services. Airtel remains
committed to Tanzania and will continue to invest in its operations
and serve customers with world-class services.”
“We are extremely pleased to announce our entry into Tanzania
and expand our partnership with Airtel, one of the world’s leading
multinational network operators,” said Hal Hess, EVP and President,
EMEA, of American Tower. “With a young, growing population,
tremendous growth potential and a complementary location relative
to our existing African operations, we view Tanzania as a highly
attractive adjacent market opportunity.”
The tower sale agreements allow Airtel to focus on its core
business and customers, besides helping deleverage through debt
reduction, and significantly reducing the on-going capital
expenditure on passive infrastructure.
The transaction is expected to close during the first half of
2016, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory
approval.
About Bharti Airtel
Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications
company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa.
Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the
top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In
India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G
wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed
DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national
& international long distance services to carriers. In the rest
of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services and
mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 353 million customers
across its operations at the end of January 2016. To know more
please visit, www.airtel.com.
About American Tower
American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading
independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant
communications real estate with a portfolio of over 100,000
communications sites. For more information about American Tower,
please visit www.americantower.com.
Cautionary Language Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements
This press release contains statements about future events and
expectations, or “forward-looking statements,” all of which are
inherently uncertain. We have based those forward looking
statements on management’s current expectations and assumptions and
not on historical facts. Examples of these statements include, but
are not limited to, statements regarding the proposed closing
of the transaction described above. These forward-looking
statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For
important factors that may cause actual results to differ
materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements,
we refer you to the information contained in Item 1A of our
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 under the
caption “Risk Factors” and in other filings we make with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to
update the information contained in this press release to reflect
subsequently occurring events or circumstances.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160321005530/en/
For Bharti Airtel:Raza Khanraza.khan@bharti.inorAshutosh
SharmaAshutosh.s@bharti.inorFor American TowerMatt Peterson, +1
617-375-7500
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