Helios Towers closes in on Omantel towers acquisition

Helios Towers has edged closer towards buying Omantel’s passive tower infrastructure assets.

The London-based firm said in a statement that all necessary regulatory approval for the deal has been satisfied.

The deal is expected to close next month, with Helios set to scoop up nearly 3,000 assets from Oman operator Omantel in a $575 million deal. It comes over a year and a half after the agreement was first announced by the infrastructure company.

Earlier this year, Helios worked with local partner Rakiza Telecommunication Infrastructure to push ahead with the acquisition, with Rakiza to acquire a 30 percent stake in the holding company for $172.5 million. Before this agreement, Helios was set to be the full purchaser of the assets.

Despite being London-based, Helios is very much an Africa-focused telecoms infrastructure company, with the firm owning and operating telecoms sites across the continent.

The company boasts towers assets in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, Madagascar, and Malawi.

Helios recently divested its 60 percent stake in Telkom Kenya for KES 6.09 billion ($50 million) to the Kenyan Treasury.

Meanwhile, earlier this month Helios acquired two data center companies after acquiring a majority stake in Morocco’s Maroc Datacenter (MDC) and Kenya’s IXAfrica. DatacenterDynamics