American-Nigerian tycoon Sam Darwish’s IHS posts $214 million in losses in 9M 2022

IHS Holding, a leading telecom infrastructure firm owned by American-Nigerian telecom mogul Sam Darwish, reported $214.9 million in losses at the end of the first nine months of its 2022 fiscal year, owing to an increase in finance expenses and operating costs caused by rising energy prices.

IHS Holding, a Nigeria-based telecom infrastructure company, is the largest telecom infrastructure group by tower count in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, and the world’s third-largest independent transnational tower company. Darwish owns 3.5 percent of the telecom infrastructure company, which he started in 2001.

The $214.9-million loss that the group posted in its recently published financial results followed a $46-million profit in the first nine months of its 2021 fiscal year and expanded its accumulated losses above $3 billion, up from $2.86 billion at the start of the year.

The loss reflects the impact of an increase in net finance costs due to higher realized and unrealized foreign exchange losses on financing, an increase in interest expense, and a fair value loss on embedded options within the bonds, driven by rising treasury rates and market sentiment influenced by events such as the current situation between Russia and Ukraine.

Aside from the significant increase in the group’s finance costs, which had a significant impact on earnings, the multimillion-dollar loss can also be attributed to a surge in the cost of sales, including higher diesel costs and increased administrative expenses associated with being a public company.

In a comment about the company’s financial performance, Darwish, chairman and CEO of IHS Holdings, said the company had a strong quarter driven by continued secular demand, as well as incremental recurring revenue and a one-time catch-up payment after reaching an agreement on certain contractual terms with one of its key customers.

Darwish further stated that during the review period, IHS extended the maturity date of its $270.0 million revolving credit facility from 2023 to 2025, and that in October, the company inked a new $600.0 million three-year bullet-term loan aimed at lowering its interest expenditure in 2023 and 2024.