Africa tower operators head for London for summit

TELECOMS

Leaders from American Tower, Eaton Towers, Helios Towers Africa and Quippo Infrastructure are meeting to debate the latest strategies for owning and managing telecom infrastructure at the TMT Finance Africa conference in London on June 17.

The organisers of the event say the panel discussion, Africa Towers – Strategies for Sales and Leaseback , takes place amidst a surge in deals and financing activity as major telecom operators across the continent prepare sales and outsourcing of assets to raise capital for investment into new growth areas. All the major tower operators will feature at the conference which brings together leadership from telecom operators, investors, banks, government regulators and specialist advisers.

Michael Di’ Carlo, VP, International Business Development, American Tower Corporation, will launch the towers debate with a visionary keynote speech titled Africa – Vision across the perception-reality. The ensuing panel discussion will also feature Charles Green, CEO, Helios Towers Africa; Terry Rhodes, Co-founder and Director, Eaton Towers, Fabrizio Mambrini, CFO, Cell C and Ashish J. Thakkar, Director, Quippo Mara Infrastructure.  Rod Kirwan, Partner and Head of Telecoms at SNR Denton will chair the session.

“ This is a hugely significant session as infrastructure ownership is the critical issue for Africa telecom operators at the moment and bankers are reporting an explosion of deals across the continent,” said Dominic Lowndes, Managing Director, BroadGroup TMT Ventures, the event organiser.  “ We are excited to have such a prestigious panel representing all the major tower operators and it will be fascinating to learn about their different strategies for sharing and managing infrastructure.”

Telecom bankers are predicting hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions involving telecom infrastructure sales and sharing in Africa over the next 12 months according to an article in yesterday’ s TMT Finance News Alert, the emerging market telecom news service. “ “ We have never been so busy,” commented one leading telecom banker. “ Every major carrier is actively considering strategic options and it is fair to say that almost every one of Africa’ s 54 countries has some kind of deal in progress.”   Current deals were specifically highlighted in Nigeria, Kenya and Madagascar.

TMT Finance and Investment Africa takes place on June 17 at America Square in the City of London and will feature presentations from industry leaders on the latest investment opportunities and strategies, topical debate and high end networking for deal focused professionals.

Over 35 speakers from the telecom, finance and advisory community, including CEOs, CFOs and global heads of telecom, media and technology will be represented at the conference. Other key sessions include: The Telecom Strategy and Leadership Round Table; The M& A Advisers Panel; Infrastructure Investment Panel and Raising Finance for African Telecoms.

Conference sponsors are Clifford Chance LLP, American Tower, SNR Denton LLP, Mi-Fone, Rand Merchant Bank and Capital MSL.