Eaton Towers, the African tower ownership and management company, has secured a US$30mn debt facility to build and develop both existing and new telecom towers across Ghana
The facility, from Standard Bank Group, acting through Stanbic Bank Ghana and the Standard Bank of South Africa, is Eaton's first bank debt financing. It follows the US$150mn equity investment into Eaton Towers last September by Capital International Private Equity Funds a private equity investor that focuses on emerging markets.
“We are delighted to have completed our first bank debt financing with Standard Bank Group,” said Peter Lewis, Chief Financial Officer of Eaton Towers. “Given our strong deal pipeline and the interest we are seeing from financial and development institutions, we are confident that this will be the first of many such financing deals. This debt facility is an endorsement of our business model and demonstrates our ability to leverage our assets in Africa in a highly efficient way.”
The debt facility and equity investment will enable Eaton Towers to add scale to its business of selling telecom tower co-location and shared-infrastructure facilities to mobile operators. Specifically, the debt facility will fund operational maintenance of existing towers that Eaton manages for Vodafone Ghana and the construction of new towers in Ghana. Eaton Towers has drawn down US$10mn of the facility so far.
In October 2010, Eaton Towers signed a 10-year contract to take over the operations and co-location management of 750 telecom towers for Vodafone Ghana and the company plans to extend its operations across other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
