Sam Darwish’s IHS Towers posts $16.9-million in profit in Q1 2022

After reporting a 26.1-million loss at the end of its 2021 fiscal year, which ended on Dec. 31, 2021, IHS Towers, a leading telecom infrastructure firm led by telecom tycoon Sam Darwish, is on track to deliver profits at the end of 2022 after posting profits in the first three months of 2022.

IHS Towers reported a profit of $16.9 million in the first quarter of 2022, up from a loss of $29.05 million in the same quarter in 2021, according to data contained in its recently released unaudited financial results.

IHS Towers is a Nigeria-based telecom infrastructure firm founded by Darwish. The group is the largest telecom infrastructure group in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East by tower count, and the third-largest independent multinational tower company internationally.

The profit recorded in the first three months of 2021 reflects the aggregate impact of an increase in revenue from $361.7 million to $446.1 million, despite downward pressures from direct costs and operating expenses such as higher power generation costs and increased administrative expenses.

Revenue from its Nigerian operations increased by $59.4 million, or 22.7 percent, to $320.7 million from $261.3 million in the first quarter of 2021, while revenue from its Sub-Saharan Africa segment increased by $2.5 million, or three percent, to $85.6 million.

IHS Towers’ total assets increased from $5.47 billion to $5.76 billion as a result of its strong financial performance, while its accumulated losses decreased marginally from $2.86 billion to $2.84 billion.

“We had another strong quarter,” IHS Towers Chairman and CEO Sam Darwish said, “with revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and cash flow all exceeding our own internal expectations, as well as consensus estimates.”

He added that the telecom company is now on track to meet the upper end of its initial revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2022, excluding the benefit of a pending deal in South Africa that it expects to close soon.

Subject to the completion of its pending deal with MTN South Africa, IHS Towers is expected to take over about 5,700 towers in South Africa, bringing the company’s tower infrastructure to 39,000 towers in 11 countries, making it the third-largest independent multinational tower company by tower count.

This geographic scale will help diversify its revenue stream and position the company in some of the world’s largest emerging markets, including the three largest African countries by GDP – Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt – and Brazil, the largest Latin American country by GDP.