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Sam Darwish, a U.S.-Nigerian telecom tycoon and founder of IHS Towers, has stated that he sees opportunities for additional acquisitions in Latin America driven by market growth potential, particularly in Brazil.
In this vein, the prominent businessman stated that his telecom tower company, IHS Towers, will be much more selective with new acquisitions in its current markets, which include Latin America, where it still sees opportunities for consolidation.
His most recent remark comes after his Lagos-based telecom infrastructure company 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 of 2021, according to recently released unaudited financial results.
IHS signed a $315-million agreement earlier this year to acquire tower assets in Brazil from Grupo TorreSur (GTS), a leading Latin American telecommunications infrastructure provider.
The acquisition, the group’s fifth in the region, is an important part of IHS Towers’ inorganic growth strategy in Latin America, as it seeks to become the continent’s leading emerging market telecommunications infrastructure provider.
While providing investors with more information about the tower company’s strategic roadmap in 2022, Darwish stated that acquisitions remain an important part of the company’s strategy and IHS is not in a rush to make new acquisitions, because it seeks a disciplined approach and has other projects in the works.
“We are pleased with our current geographic footprint,” he said. “Our current focus on M&As is in our existing markets, with a particular focus on South Africa, Brazil, and Egypt, as we look to leverage our existing cost structures.”
He confirmed that the telecom tower is eager to optimize its cost structures and improve the quality of its assets, which comes on the heels of the impending completion of a deal in South Africa that will see it expand its tower infrastructure by 5,700 towers.
IHS has nearly 39,000 towers in 11 countries, making it the third-largest independent multinational tower company in terms of sites.
Of these, 6,786 are in its second-largest market, Brazil, and include sites added as a result of the recently completed acquisition of 2,115 towers from Torresur’s SP5 portfolio in the country.
