Jazz Sells its 13,000 Towers for $940 Million

Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited (DHCL), in partnership with edotco, has to entered into an agreement with Veon Pakistan Limited (parent group of Jazz) to acquire its tower business in Pakistan.

With this agreement, which was signed today morning, Jazz will give away its towers to edotco as a whole.

edotco will operate, manage and maintain 13,000 towers for Jazz and will be allowed to offer similar services — on shared basis — to other telcos in Pakistan.

As part of the transaction, DH Corp will be investing a 45% equity stake with the remaining 55% control stake to be held by edotco.

The total transaction consideration for the proposed acquisition is USD 940 million, which will be funded through a combination of debt and equity.

Upon the completion of the proposed  subscription, edotco Labuan and DH Corp (Dawood Hercules Group) will respectively hold 55% and 45% of the issued paid up share capital of  edotco PK.

Edotco PK is in the business of integrated telecommunications infrastructures services, providing end to end solutions in the tower sector from tower leasing and co-locations, built to suit energy and transmission and operations and maintenance.

The business group, in partnership with DH Group, has announced the proposed acquisition of approximately 13,000 towers in Pakistan from Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited.

The acquisition of these 13,000 towers will make Edotco the biggest independent telecommunications tower operator in a South Asian nation, one of the people said.

By virtue of acquiring these 13,000 towers in Pakistan, Edotco, the infrastructure arm of Axiata will become the biggest telecommunication tower operator in the country.

Suresh Sidhu, CEO of edotco said,

“edotco is delighted to expand its business in Pakistan by catering to the network requirements of Jazz, the country’s number one digital communications company. With Dawood Hercules as our partner, we are confident in the potential of the market in Pakistan and will continue to demonstrate our long-term commitment to supporting the development and enhancement of the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.”

Aamir Ibrahim, CEO of Jazz commented,

“This transaction with Tanzanite Tower will allow Jazz to further improve its core strength in providing best in class products and services to its customers. Partnering with a trusted partner like Tanzanite Tower will ensure that Jazz’ customers will continue to benefit from industry leading network quality. It also allows Jazz to focus on its journey to becoming an innovative digital lifestyle partner.”

Dawood Hercules Company is an investing  holding company listed in Pakistan stock exchange with a market capitalization of  USD 600 million.

Veon is the majority shareholder in Pakistan’s largest mobile operator Jazz, formerly known as Mobilink.

Edotco at the start of the month had wrapped up an $89m purchase of 700 towers which were owned by Tanzanite Tower Pvt, according to Axiata.

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