Bharti Airtel’s towers sale in Congo credit positive, says Moody’s

NEW DELHI: Ratings firm Moody’s Thursday said that Bharti Airtel move to sell its mobile towers in Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo for upto $210 million is credit positive.

India’ top carrier agreed to sell 950 telecom towers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Helios Towers in Africa. Bharti Airtel, however did not disclose financial details of the sale.

Moody’s estimates proceeds of $140-$210 million, assuming a per-tower price of $150,000-$220,000, which, it said is in line with its March 2015 estimate for Bharti’s African tower sales.

“We expect the DRC towers sale to close sometime during 2016, pending statutory and regulatory approvals,” the firm said in a statement.

Bharti Airtel’s tower sale is a part of Bharti’s ongoing monetization initiative, and according to ratings firm, is credit positive as it will support debt reduction and help counter the adverse effect on leverage from its spectrum acquisitions.

The telco has spent around Rs 79.3 billion ($1.1 billion) on spectrum so far this year and its monetization activities have been essential to countering any potential additional debt incurrence associated with growth initiatives such as spectrum acquisitions.

Through March 31, 2016, Bharti Airtel completed the sale of some 9,000 towers for around $1.8 billion.

Bharti Airtel has sold 11,000, or around 60%, of its entire tower portfolio of around 15,000 in several African countries that includes the May 5 sale and last month’s definitive agreement with American Tower Corporation to sell 1,350 of its towers in Tanzania.