IHS Holding Limited operates as an independent owner, operator and developer of shared communications infrastructure.
The company is providing its customers, most of whom are leading MNOs, with critical infrastructure that facilitates mobile communications coverage and connectivity for approximately 644 million people in emerging markets, across two regions and eight countries. The company is the largest independent multinational emerging-market-only tower operator and one of the largest indepe...
IHS Holding Limited operates as an independent owner, operator and developer of shared communications infrastructure.
The company is providing its customers, most of whom are leading MNOs, with critical infrastructure that facilitates mobile communications coverage and connectivity for approximately 644 million people in emerging markets, across two regions and eight countries. The company is the largest independent multinational emerging-market-only tower operator and one of the largest independent multinational tower operators globally, in each case by tower count. As of December 31, 2024, the company operated 39,229 Towers across six countries in Africa and two countries in Latin America. As of December 31, 2024, the company was the largest independent tower operator in six of the eight markets in which it operates, and it is the only independent tower operator of scale in four of these markets.
The company has a well-defined organic and inorganic expansion strategy designed to grow in existing markets with its existing and new customers, and, given the significant global emerging market opportunities in communications infrastructure, the company has historically entered into carefully selected growth-oriented markets with compelling underlying fundamentals.
The company’s core business is providing shared communications infrastructure services to MNOs and other customers, who in turn provide wireless voice, data, and fiber services to their end users and subscribers. The company provides its customers with opportunities to lease space on existing Towers alongside current Tenants, known as Colocation, to install additional equipment on a Tower or request certain ancillary services, known as Lease Amendments, or to commission the construction of new Towers to the customer’s specifications, known as New Sites. Additionally, through I-Systems, the company provides ‘Fiber-to-the-Home’ or ‘FTTH’ fiber connectivity to the company’s customers through a neutral network infrastructure solution for broadband service, and in Nigeria, the company provides ‘Fiber-to-the-Tower’ or ‘FTTT’ connectivity to its customers. Finally, the company leases space to its customers in secure locations within large building complexes, such as shopping malls, stadiums, and airports, which the company refers to as in-building solutions or distributed antenna systems (‘DAS’). In certain strategic instances, the company may also provide Managed Services, such as maintenance, security, and power supply for Towers owned by third parties. As of December 31, 2024, the company’s owned and operated tower portfolio supported 59,343 Tenants, with a Colocation Rate of 1.51x.
The company’s primary customers are the leading MNOs in each of its markets. The company also provides infrastructure and services to a number of other communications service providers. To support the communications infrastructure needs of its customers, the company typically enters into long-term MLAs of 5 to 10 years in duration, which have historically yielded strong renewal rates. As of December 31, 2024, the average remaining length of the company’s MLAs with its Key Customers, who represented 93% of its Tenants, was 7.0 years.
The company’s MLAs typically include annual or semi-annual inflation-linked revenue escalators, limited customer termination rights, and, in certain cases, provisions designed to help mitigate foreign exchange risk, such as periodic reset mechanisms to adjust for local currency devaluation. The company also benefits from power indexation and power pass-through clauses in some of its MLAs, which are intended to help mitigate against increases in diesel and electricity prices.
The company’s footprint is the result of many years of building, acquiring, operating, managing, and owning communications infrastructure in emerging market environments. As one of the pioneers of the tower infrastructure industry in Africa, the company has worked with its customers to develop the experience needed to operate and grow a successful business in its sector.
Strategy
The company’s strategies are to increase revenue, improve margins, and grow cash flows by maximizing the use of its existing assets and driving organic growth through Colocation, Lease Amendments, and New Sites or other communications infrastructure; seek attractive rates of return and realizations through disciplined organic capital allocation and activity; continue focus on operational excellence, service delivery for customers, and adopting an innovative approach to new technology; and enhance its impact on its communities and on the environment.
Tower Portfolio
Size of portfolio
As of December 31, 2024, the company had a portfolio of 35,238 owned Towers and 3,991 Towers that it operates under MLL and ROU arrangements, totaling 39,229 Towers owned and operated. With 59,343 Tenants as of December 31, 2024, the company had a Colocation Rate of 1.51x. Additionally, as of December 31, 2024, the company had 39,671 Lease Amendments. The company has historically increased the number of its Towers through a combination of constructing New Sites, along with the acquisition of site portfolios from MNOs and from independent tower companies, namely HTN Towers, CSS, Skysites, Centennial, and GTS SP5.
In connection with the acquisition of multiple portfolios of Towers and in other circumstances, the company has also rationalized its portfolio through decommissioning, including the ongoing rationalization program agreed with a Key Customer in Nigeria. Where economically and commercially viable to do so, the company migrates Tenants from one Tower onto a nearby Tower as additional Colocation and then decommissions the empty site. While the decommissioning of Towers offsets the company’s overall growth in the number of Towers, it allows the company to eliminate cost of sales and ongoing maintenance capital expenditures of the decommissioned tower with only a marginal cost of sales increase at its retained sites through increased power consumption.
Tenancies and Colocation Rate
The company provides its customers with opportunities to install active equipment and receive related services on existing Towers alongside current Tenants, known as Colocation. The Colocation Rate is the average number of Tenants per Tower that the company owns or operates across its portfolio at a point in time. With 59,343 Tenants as of December 31, 2024, the company had a Colocation Rate of 1.51x.
The company’s Colocation Rate is an important metric for assessing utilization and capacity on existing Towers, as well as potential for future growth. The company’s Colocation Rate is a key driver of its gross margins and operating margins, as the addition of further Tenants to existing Towers increases revenue while only marginally increasing its costs (primarily power). Colocation is attractive to the company’s customers, as it provides them with shorter deployment times for their equipment compared to New Site construction arrangements.
The Colocation Rate of the company’s Towers is a key indicator of portfolio maturity and operational efficiency.
Lease Amendments
In addition to Colocation, the company also continues to benefit from Lease Amendments as its existing Tenants roll out new technologies or require installation of additional equipment or ancillary services on their existing sites, which includes the deployment of 3G, 4G, and 5G technologies. As of December 31, 2024, the company’s customers had deployed over 39,500 Lease Amendments to Towers across its footprint. Given the relative growth potential of the telecommunications markets in which the company operates, where 3G and 4G SIM penetration are generally at a low starting base, the majority of the Lease Amendments that the company had added thus far are for 3G and 4G equipment added to a Tower for existing Tenants, albeit in 2024, 5G equipment made up the majority of its new Lease Amendments.
The antennas, microwave dish, and the active equipment inside or outside of the shelter are owned and maintained by the customers, while the company owns and maintains the passive infrastructure, including the mast, the shelter, the site monitoring system, and, if applicable, the diesel generator, the battery backup system, or the hybrid power solutions, which include solar and battery systems.
The number of antennae that a Tower can accommodate varies depending on the type of Tower (self-supporting monopole, guyed, or self-supporting lattice), the height of the Tower, the nature of the services provided by such antenna, and the antenna size and weight. The substantial majority of the company’s Towers are self-supporting lattice Towers that can support a large number of antennae, which therefore enables the company to market tower space to a diverse group of telecommunications providers and other customers. Ground-based Towers can typically accommodate three or more Tenants. The key criteria in determining how many Tenants the Tower can hold is the wind loading capacity of the Tower. The capacity of a single Tower can be increased by Tower strengthening and height extensions and by adding further antenna mounting poles. The structure of the Tower can be reinforced, and the foundation strengthened to accommodate additional Tenants and Lease Amendments.
The company’s Tower portfolio consists principally of ground-based Towers. As of December 31, 2024, 60% of the company’s Towers were between 30 and 60 meters in height, and 29% of its Towers were smaller than 30 meters, including 10% of which were rooftop sites. The company builds larger Towers when circumstances require, including when Towers will be located in valleys or require a greater range of transmission. As of December 31, 2024, 9% of the company’s Towers were between 60 and 75 meters, and 3% are taller than 75 meters. As of December 31, 2024, the average age of Towers in the company’s portfolio based on its date of integration was 7.9 years.
Operations
The company’s core business provides shared communications infrastructure services to MNOs, including power management, to ensure uninterrupted operation of customers’ transmission equipment. MNOs, in turn, use the company’s tower infrastructure to provide wireless voice and data services to their end users. The company leases space to customers on existing Towers alongside current Tenants, known as Colocation, as well as leases additional space for the installation of additional equipment or provides additional services to existing Tenants on Towers through Lease Amendments. The company commissions New Sites for construction to the MNOs’ specifications and leases space on those newly built Towers. In certain of the company’s markets, the company also provides customers with the required power for their equipment and provides FTTT services.
Colocation
Colocation is at the core of the company’s business model, as it allows the company to leverage existing Towers to grow revenue and improve operating margins.
Lease Amendments
In addition to Colocation, the company drives its revenue and operating margins by leasing additional space for equipment or providing certain ancillary services to existing Tenants on sites through Lease Amendments. For example, an existing Tenant may choose to request more space and/or power at the same site the Tenant is leasing, or an existing Tenant may seek to connect fiber to the Tower, which also requires the provision of additional power for that connection.
The company’s customers utilize different technologies, though active GSM technologies comprise the most prevalent type of technology on its Towers to date. Data demands continue to be a key factor in the company’s markets, and certain large MNOs have recently been upgrading their 4G networks and/or have already begun deploying 5G networks. These technologies require increased density for Towers and equipment, increasing the need for additional points of service and amplifying the need for Lease Amendments.
New Sites
The company has extensive New Site deployment experience, having built over 10,800 New Sites and has been a major provider to the market in New Sites since 2011.
New Sites constructed consist primarily of ground-based towers, but can also include in-building solutions, rooftop, and wall-mounted towers and cells-on-wheels. For New Sites, the company retains ownership, as well as the exclusive right to collocate additional Tenants on the tower. These New Sites always begin operations with at least a single tenant, with Colocation and Lease Amendments expected at future dates. The company seeks to construct New Sites only in locations where Key Customers are committed to be the initial tenant with optimal additional Colocation capacity, and therefore generally aims to only build Towers for customers in locations that have the potential to attract other customers. The company strives to realize the operating leverage inherent in the tower business by leasing up the New Sites with additional tenancies. In Africa (excluding South Africa), the company aims to construct New Sites with the appropriate primary power systems for their location, which may include hybrid batteries and solar systems.
The entire process from receipt of work order to completion of New Site construction as of December 31, 2024, typically took approximately 90 to 200 days.
Decommissioning sites
Historically, the company has grown its portfolio through constructing New Sites, along with the acquisition of site portfolios from MNOs and independent tower companies. As a result of acquisitions of multiple tower portfolios in the same markets, the company often has multiple Towers in close proximity to each other. If it is economically and commercially viable to do so, and if agreed to by the tenant, the company migrates Tenants from one Tower onto a nearby Tower as additional Colocation and then decommissions the empty site. In other circumstances, the company may selectively decommission sites of existing customers, including the previous rationalization program agreed with a Key Customer in Nigeria. While the decommissioning of Towers offsets the company’s overall growth in the number of Towers, it allows the company to eliminate duplicative cost of sales and ongoing maintenance capital expenditures of the decommissioned tower with only a marginal cost of sales increase at its retained sites through increased power consumption.
Site management and maintenance
The company deploys a combination of in-house personnel and third-party contractors to manage and maintain its Towers. In-house personnel are responsible for oversight and supervision of all aspects of preventative and corrective maintenance and site management, including managing the operational aspects of customer relationships, managing structural engineering and tower capacity issues, ensuring proper signage, and supervision of independent contractors. The company engages numerous suppliers to provide various services in connection with site acquisition, construction, access management, security, and preventative and corrective maintenance of tower sites, as well as the supply of diesel to certain of its sites. As of December 31, 2024, the company had entered into outsourcing arrangements for certain services in respect of 73% of its sites.
For example, the company has outsourced power management, refurbishment, operations and maintenance, and security functions at some of its sites to third-party contractors. These power management functions include the supply of diesel to certain sites and deployment of alternative power technologies that the company configures and designs, such as hybrid and solar power technologies, on certain sites, to help reduce diesel consumption to a contracted volume. Third-party contractors providing material operational services are subject to strict contractual execution targets for both financial and operational performance. By entering into these agreements, the company is able to ensure the proper functioning of its sites and fix its costs by setting maximum costs per site (subject to typical inflation escalation) with the third-party contractor providing the services. In addition to the service level agreements that need to be maintained, outsourcing to contractors allows the company to budget more effectively.
Site maintenance and management activities include:
Site monitoring and control
The company’s NOCs are 24-hour fully operational management centers from which its personnel monitor and control the tower sites from a central location. Remote monitoring systems allow the company to better monitor, regulate, and control site conditions, including, among other things, site AC, DC, load, power consumption per tenant, diesel usage and tank levels, environmental alarms (shelter temperatures, smoke detectors, etc.), and remote access control. The company has remote monitoring systems installed in six of its markets covering 81% of its sites within these six countries (with monitoring of almost all remaining sites through MNO network operating centers). The company’s NOCs are operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week and monitor a variety of data sent from its Towers. Such data includes access and gate status, diesel supply, usage and quality, cabinet temperature, and overall power uptime, consumption, and supply. Given the current operating environment in Latin America and no provision of service levels to customers, the company’s businesses in Brazil and Colombia do not require NOCs.
The activities conducted in the NOCs ensure that the company provides its customers with quality service and uptimes. The company has averaged a power uptime of 99.5% (excluding South Africa as it no longer provides power Managed Services for those sites) across its tower portfolio in its African markets for the year ended December 31, 2024, with an average mean time to repair of under two hours for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Security
The protection of the company’s sites is key to ensuring the sustainability of its business. The company ensures that its Towers generally have fencing and security lights and, where relevant, such as in its African markets, some of its sites are guarded by outsourced security guards. The company applies rigorous access control policies at the sites and requires each visitor to be pre-approved with customer representatives. The company’s remote monitoring systems also allow it to track all access to restricted areas on the sites.
Power and Power Management
The reliability of main grid electricity varies considerably across the company’s footprint and determines, along with the requirements of any one site, the most appropriate power system for that site. Specifically in the company’s African markets where there can be a lack of reliable main grid electricity supply, the company currently sources a substantial amount of its power needs for daily operations from a combination of diesel generators, solar panels, and deep cycle batteries. As of December 31, 2024, in the company’s African markets (excluding South Africa as it no longer provides power Managed Services for those sites), 41% of its sites were powered with hybrid power systems (a combination of diesel generators with solar and/or battery systems), 18% with only generators, 33% with grid connectivity and back-up generators, with the remaining 8% powered through only grid connectivity or solar power and other systems. As of December 31, 2024, 9,025 of the company’s sites in Africa, excluding South Africa, had solar power solutions, representing 36% of its African Tower portfolio (excluding South Africa). The company, or third-party contractors it has engaged for certain sites, are responsible for monitoring the diesel levels of its generator tanks and scheduling diesel deliveries. Given the importance of diesel for the operation of the company’s sites in many of its African markets, the company may purchase diesel in large quantities, which is then stored at its facilities. In Latin America and South Africa, the company’s sites are typically powered by grid solutions, with back-up power systems in certain instances.
To address the costs associated with diesel generator usage and maintenance in the company’s African markets (excluding South Africa), the company deploys, as practicable, hybrid battery power systems, which involve alternating between power storage sources, such as batteries (VRLA and lithium ion) and diesel generators. On certain sites, the company has also switched from using 3-phase AC generators to DC generators or single-phase generators, which consume less diesel. The company also deploys hybrid solar power systems on certain sites. The company continuously evaluates innovative power management technologies and solutions, including more efficient generators, hybrid battery systems, and solar systems. The company outsources certain services, including power management and site maintenance for certain of its sites, which includes over 9,000 sites in Nigeria where it had deployed hybrid power systems, prior to Project Green. These systems use batteries and/or solar power systems, along with traditional generators, to reduce fuel costs and create a more consistent energy supply to increase network uptime for its customers. In Nigeria, the deployment of these power management solutions resulted in, on average, an approximately 50% reduction in diesel consumption per tower at the time of deployment on more than 7,400 sites where the company had deployed hybrid power solutions, which included solar power.
Given the reliable grid connectivity in the company’s Latin America markets, power management is less of a focus in these markets.
Fiber Services
In certain of the company’s markets, the company has begun providing certain fiber services, including the deployment and operation of fiber access networks and infrastructure. In Brazil, through the company’s I-Systems subsidiary, the company deploys and operates a fiber infrastructure that is primarily rented to TIM Brasil (as anchor client) and other customers, for their provision of residential broadband services to consumers, FTTH. As part of the transaction that formed I-Systems, the company inherited FTTC that is also being upgraded to FTTH. I-Systems is responsible for the deployment of the relevant fiber node, as well as the secondary fiber network connected to that node, including the fiber drop at a consumer’s premises. I-Systems is also responsible for the ongoing management and maintenance of that fiber network. As of December 31, 2024, the I-Systems network covers approximately 9.3 million homes passed (of which approximately 6.4 million are FTTH) and spans approximately 22,250 route kilometers. In certain of the company’s African markets, the company also provides FTTT services, where it deploys fiber to towers that it owns or operates and sells capacity to its customers to generate revenue.
Customer Lease Agreements
The company leases space on Towers to its customers pursuant to a combination of MLAs, which provide the commercial terms governing the lease of tower space, MLL agreements, and individual SLAs, where relevant, which act as an appendix to the relevant MLA, and include site-specific terms for each relevant tower.
Site Lease Agreements
In addition to the MLA, where a customer requests new space for additional Colocation or New Sites, pursuant to some of its existing MLAs, the company sometimes also enters into one or more SLAs with that customer, which include certain site-specific arrangements.
Lease Fees
Lease fees for the services the company provides are normally invoiced to Tenants in advance or arrears on a monthly or quarterly basis.
For certain customers, the company also charges lease fees on the basis of the type of technology employed by the customer, which includes a defined amount of space and power as necessary for such technology. In most cases, additional fees may be invoiced if such customers require additional space and/or power in excess of these specifications, subject to the terms of the relevant MLA.
Managed Services
For sites that the company does not own but operates on behalf of another party, such as an MNO, the company provides Managed Services. Managed Services include providing all aspects of preventative and corrective maintenance and site management. The company provides its customers with Managed Services through a combination of in-house personnel and third-party contractors.
Real Property Leases
Most of the company’s sites are located on real property which has been leased to the company by individual landowners under ground lease agreements. As of December 31, 2024, approximately 89% of its Towers were on leased property.
Sales and Marketing
The company offers the largest portfolios in many of the countries in which it operates and uses its experience and expertise to enable its customers to broaden their range of network leasing options. The company’s sales and marketing team is in regular discussions with customers to identify whether its existing Towers can fulfill new tenancy demand, or if the customers may require a New Site. In many cases, customers prefer a Colocation option due to a faster time-to-market advantage. However, the company’s expertise in site acquisition, construction, and structural and electrical engineering, as well as regulatory compliance, has been a critical component in obtaining and completing New Site orders on time and within budget.
Customers
The company’s main customers in each country of operation are leading MNOs in that country. In addition, and to a much smaller extent, the company leases space on its Towers to customers providing wireless broadband and data services, to broadcasting companies that use tower infrastructure in the broadcast of television signals, to transmission companies that provide transmission connectivity services, and to corporates for the provision of enterprise connectivity.
Competition
ATC is the company’s primary competitor in Africa among independent tower companies, including in Nigeria and South Africa, and Helios Towers Plc and SBA are other notable competitors in Africa.
Permits and Regulation
Most of the jurisdictions in which the company currently operates have a license or authorization regime to operate a passive communications infrastructure business. Where applicable, licenses or authorizations are issued by the relevant national regulator which regulates its operations in such country. A summary of some of these key licenses and/or authorizations is as follows:
Cameroon: IHS Cameroon operates under a five-year renewable license, which was renewed by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Ministere des Postes et Telecommunications) in November 2022.
Côte d’Ivoire: While the licensing regime for the passive communications infrastructure sector is currently in the process of being finalized by the government, IHS Côte d’Ivoire operates under a General Authorization (Autorisation Générale) issued for ten (10) years from July 2023 by ARTCI.
Nigeria: The NCC has issued Infrastructure Sharing and Colocation Licenses to each of IHS Nigeria, INT Towers, and ITNG. Each such license is granted for a period of 10 years and is renewable at its expiration for a subsequent period of 10 years. The NCC has also issued a Unified Access Service Licence to Global Independent Connect Limited for a period of 15 years, which is renewable at its expiration for a subsequent period of 15 years.
Rwanda: The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority, or RURA, has issued a license to each of its Rwanda operating entities. These licenses are valid for an initial period of 15 years and each license can be renewed for successive five-year periods.
South Africa: Tower operators do not require any tower company-specific licenses or authorizations issued by the South African regulatory authorities.
Zambia: ZICTA has issued a Network (National) License to IHS Zambia, which is valid for an initial period of 15 years and can be renewed for subsequent periods of 10 years after the expiration of its initial term.
Brazil: Tower operators do not require any tower company-specific licenses or authorizations issued by the Brazilian regulatory authorities. All providers of multimedia communications services (Serviço de Comunicação Multimídia), which includes providers of fiber connectivity, are required to have a license issued by Anatel (Licença SCM — Serviço de Comunicação Multimídia) in order to operate in Brazil. I-Systems holds the required license.
Colombia: The company’s Colombian entities do not require any tower company-specific license.
History
IHS Holding Limited was founded in 2001. The company was incorporated in the Republic of Mauritius as a private company limited by shares in 2012 under the Mauritian Companies Act 2001.
