An Actis-led consortium has completed its acquisition of Telkom's tower business Swiftnet in South Africa.
The consortium acquired Swiftnet for an enterprise value of around $370 million (ZAR6.75bn). South African carrier Telkom will remain an anchor tenant.
A deal has been in the works for a while, with an agreement reached last year. At the time, Telkom said the sale will help it to ease debts, and allow it to invest in its core businesses and other growth opportunities.
Telkom's shareholders approved the deal later in the year.
Swiftnet operates more than 4,000 telecom tower sites across South Africa.
The Actis-led consortium, which includes international and local investors such as the Mineworkers Investment Company, has taken a 70 percent stake in Swiftnet, partnering with Royal Bafokeng Holdings, which has acquired a 30 percent share.
As part of the acquisition, Actis noted that it will look to expand coverage in rural parts of the country, and increase its focus on 4G and 5G technology as it transitions away from 3G.
“It’s terrific to have completed the acquisition of Swiftnet, which we aim to establish as the leading independent towerco in South Africa," said David Cooke, partner at Actis.
"The business benefits from great relationships with its anchor tenants and mobile network operators, which we plan to reinforce. It has all the ingredients to help bridge the need for tower densification and increased coverage to meet rapidly growing Internet usage and demand, while further helping to unlock the potential of the South African digital economy by providing reliable and fast mobile connectivity.”
Last year, Actis acquired Telekom Srbija's macro tower portfolio in Serbia. The company would later launch the unit as Connectis Tower, a tower company focused on the Balkans region.
It also launched a data center platform in Asia last year called Epoch Digital. Actis said at the time that Epoch Digital aims to develop, own, and operate a scalable and geographically diversified portfolio of data centers across markets in Asia where hyperscale customers are growing with imminent demand.
