Four bits of infrastructure and related news from three continents: … [visit site to read more]

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Indus Towers, regularly in the news in recent months, has now hit the headlines with a major tower purchase in India.

Indus Towers will be acquiring a total of 16,100 telecom towers from national operator Bharti Airtel and regional service provider Bharti Hexacom for INR33.087 billion (about US$378 million) in a cash deal.

Bharti Airtel will sell 12,700 towers while Bharti Hexacom will sell 3,400 towers. Incorporated in 1995, Bharti Hexacom provides consumer mobile services, fixed-line telephone and broadband services in the Rajasthan and Northeastern regions of India.

Indus Towers said the proposed acquisition aligns with its core business line and it will increase the company’s market share and support its growth plans.

While the growth of towercos, and the increasing number of operators’ selling infrastructure to them, is nothing new, this deal is unusual in that it is a related party transaction; Bharti Airtel is the promoter, and the holding company of Indus Towers and Bharti Hexacom is a fellow subsidiary of Bharti Airtel.

India’s Economic Times news service quotes a regulatory filing from Indus Towers, which says: “The transaction is being done at arm’s length, based on an independent valuation report.” 

Indus has a pan-India presence with 234,643 towers and 386,819 co-locations at the end of last year. Indus has been reported as saying: “In line with the company’s strategic priority of increasing its market share, the said acquisition will help the company add more towers to its portfolio, hence improving its market share.”

The deal is expected to be completed by March 31 this year. 

Indus made headlines last year in a completely different context when multinational telecommunications company Vodafone Group sold off parts of its share in the company over 2024. This process culminated in the sale, in December of that year of its remaining 3% stake in Indus Towers for US$300 million to help reduce its debt pile.

Ecobank Group, a private pan-African financial services group, and Chinese company XTransfer, a cross-border trade payment platform, have signed what they call a landmark memorandum of understanding of cooperation (MoU) to roll out comprehensive cross-border financial services to Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in foreign trade.

The partners suggest that this collaboration will further facilitate trade between China and African countries, pointing out that in 2023, bilateral trade reached a record US$282 billion. From January to November 2024, China’s exports to Africa totalled US$160 billion, a 1.4% increase from the previous year, while imports from Africa reached US$107 billion, marking a substantial rise of 6.6%.

However, they add, despite this growth, African SMEs engaged in foreign trade face numerous challenges related to cross-border payments and fund collections. These challenges include difficulties in opening accounts with traditional banks, a high risk of funds being frozen, difficulties in foreign exchange and related losses, lengthy remittance times and high remittance costs.

Hence the partnership between XTransfer and Ecobank Group, which, they say, will foster collaboration between both parties to provide comprehensive cross-border payment solutions for African SMEs’ foreign trade.

In particular, the partnership will facilitate trade between SMEs in China and African countries and also streamline foreign trade transactions between African companies and their global partners. XTransfer will leverage Ecobank’s extensive network across Africa, enabling its Chinese clients to collect funds in local African currencies while assisting African SMEs in making payments in their local currencies to negate foreign exchange issues.

Jeremy Awori, CEO Ecobank Group, explains: “This partnership builds on our established strategy, which includes a representative office in China and a dedicated China desk. By integrating XTransfer’s cutting-edge solutions with our pan-African payment platform, we simplify payments, reduce transaction costs, and enable African businesses to thrive in global trade.”

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Here is a series of news bytes covering regional infrastructure expansion projects from this week: … [visit site to read more]

Interesting news items from Europe, southeast Asia, and the Middle East from the past several days: … [visit site to read more]

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There has been some consolidation activity in the fiber last mile this week. Gateway Fiber and WANRack have announced plans to merge into a national FTTX platform touching 25 states. … [visit site to read more]

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