African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), one of Africa’s largest infrastructure-focused private equity fund managers, Adenia Partners (Adenia), a private equity firm investing in Africa, and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, have partnered to invest US$130mn to support Eastcastle Infrastructure (Eastcastle)
Eastcastle was established in 2020 by Peter Lewis and Pankaj Kulshrestha, the former CFO and COO respectively of Eaton Towers.
The funding will support Eastcastle’s build-to-suit strategy, to develop new telecom towers initially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire. The number of towers across the region needs to increase significantly to accelerate the deployment of bandwidth intensive technologies such as 3G, 4G and 5G by Mobile Network Operators and to increase quality connectivity for individuals and businesses.
Ed Stumpf, investment director at AIIM, commented, “The internet economy has the potential to contribute nearly USD$180bn to Africa’s gross domestic product by 2025 and, as such, a core part of AIIM’s strategy is to invest in businesses that address digital infrastructure bottlenecks and enable efficiency through infrastructure sharing.”
Linda Munyengeterwa, IFC’s regional industry director for Infrastructure, Middle East and Africa, commented, “This investment in Eastcastle is testimony to IFC’s commitment to strengthening digital infrastructure in Africa and contributing to inclusive economic growth. We are excited to join with the teams of Eastcastle, AIIM and Adenia, to work together on connecting the unconnected.”
Peter Lewis, co-founder of Eastcastle added, “Following the success of Eaton Towers, Pankaj, myself and the team are excited by this opportunity to again be of service to our long-standing African Telecoms clients. We are especially pleased by the strong investor support received from some of the most experienced investors in African Towers and Infrastructure.”
