MTN Nigeria Communications on Friday has officially notified the Nigeria Exchange and the investing public that the lease for approximately 2,500 network sites, currently serviced by IHS Nigeria, is due to expire in 2024 and 2025.
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MTN Nigeria's Tower Lease Expiry
In its exchange filing, MTN Nigeria stated, "In line with MTN Nigeria's procurement policy, which seeks to ensure a transparent and competitive bidding process, the company called for tender for these tower contracts."
ATC Nigeria Chosen
"Following a review of the bids received for tower services for the affected sites, ATC Nigeria Wireless Infrastructure Solutions Limited (ATC) was selected as the preferred tower company for those sites based on its superior bid submission. Additionally, this will further diversify our site portfolio and align with our proactive initiatives to renegotiate tower agreements, focusing on ensuring terms that will help cushion the business from the volatility in our trading environment," stated the exchange filing.
MTN Nigeria, in its statement, announced that ATC would assume responsibility for providing tower services for the affected sites starting in 2025.
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IHS Towers Response
In response to MTN Nigeria's decision, IHS Towers confirmed the same in an exchange filing.
IHS holds multiple contracts with MTN for the use of its towers in Nigeria, one of which, with IHS Nigeria, includes approximately 4,100 towers, of which about 2,000 are set to expire on December 31, 2024, and roughly 500 during 2025, with the remainder expiring between 2026 and 2031.
During the second quarter of 2023, the approximately 2,500 towers set to expire by December 2025 generated approximately USD 45 million in revenue for MTN. The remaining MTN contracts in Nigeria are due to expire in December 2024, December 2029, and July 2035.
