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(Alliance News) - The Bat Hanadiv Foundation No. 3 has sold 18.3 million shares in Helios Towers PLC, global coordinator of the sale Jefferies International Ltd said Friday.
The share placing represented a 1.83% stake in Helios. Following the sale, Bat Hanadiv no longer owns any shares in the mobile towers company. Helios did not receive any proceeds from the placing.
The sale price wasn't disclosed.
Shares in Helios were down 0.2% at 161.87 pence each in London on Friday morning. At that price, 18.3 million shares would be worth GBP29.6 million.
Helios Towers on Thursday had said it was barely affected by Covid-19, as it posted good results for the first half of 2020.
The Africa-focused telecom towers owner recorded a pretax loss in the first half ended June 30 of USD83.0 million, sharply widened from a loss of USD18.7 million a year prior. The loss was attributed to an increase in finance costs to USD77.8 million from USD56.4 million a year before and a USD35.0 million loss on financial instruments versus USD24.3 million gain a year prior.
Revenue in the first half increased 7% year-on-year however to USD204.0 million from USD190.7 million last year.
On Wednesday, Helios said it had acquired over 1,200 mobile tower infrastructure assets in Senegal for EUR200 million.
The telecommunications infrastructure company bought the assets from Free Senegal, the second largest mobile operator in Senegal. Helios and Free Senegal have entered into a 15-year service agreement for the provision of hosting and energy services on the acquired sites and the sites to be built in the future.
By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com
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