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(Alliance News) - Helios Towers PLC on Thursday said its loss narrowed in the first half of 2021, as the company invested in its infrastructure portfolio and expanded into Senegal.
Shares in Helios Towers were trading down 7.8% at 157.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
Telecommunications company Helios Towers operates towers providing mobile signal across Tanzania, DRC, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana and South Africa and, most recently, Senegal.
FTSE 250-listed Helios narrowed its pretax loss to USD43.6 million in the six months ended June 30, compared to a USD83.0 million loss in that period a year prior. The company had reported a USD18.7 million loss in the first half of 2019, before the pandemic.
As sites and tenancies continued to grow, revenue rose to USD212.4 million, up 4.1% year-on-year from USD204.0 million and 11% above the USD190.7 million reported two years earlier.
The number of sites increased by 21% in the first half to 8,603 from 7,092, whilst tenancies grew 15% to 17,090 from 14,906.
Increased revenue was offset by the negative impact of depreciation and disposal costs.
Loss on disposal of property, plant and equipment, more than doubled to USD3.2 million in the first half from USD1.3 million a year before, the company reported.
Depreciation of property and equipment rose 4.1% year-on-year to USD66.3 million from USD63.7 million, while depreciation of right-to-use assets increased 48% to USD7.1 million from USD4.8 million.
Despite the loss-making half, Helios said the tenancy outlook for its five existing markets remains unchanged for 2021, with targeted capital expenditure between USD110 million and USD140 million.
For its sixth market, Senegal, the company plans to target USD215 million in capital expenditure for the entirety of 2021.
Acquisitions agreed during the first half will add around 15,000 towers across 11 markets, the company said, over delivering on its aim of expanding to over 12,000 towers in at least 8 markets by 2025.
These include the company's entry into the Middle East region through the acquisition of 2,890 sites from the Oman Telecommunications Co for a USD575 million consideration, due to close in the second half.
Further growth is anticipated through a 300 build-to-suit site commitment and co-location lease-up related to the Oman deal.
Meanwhile, Helios expects to pay USD108 million to acquire 2,227 sites from the Airtel Africa Group. The transaction is likely to close in the four quarter.
Finally, in May, Helios closed the acquisition of Free Senegal's passive infrastructure assets, adding another 1,207 sites to its portfolio.
"Upon closing these acquisitions, Helios Towers will become the most diverse independent telecommunications infrastructure company across Africa and the Middle-East," the company noted.
In summary, Chief Executive Kash Pandya said: "The first half of 2021 has been a busy period for the group, closing the acquisition of Free Senegal's tower assets and announcing five further acquisitions across Africa and the Middle-East. We are delighted to have commenced operations in the attractive Senegal market...We will be applying our tried and tested framework across each of the announced acquisitions, which we expect to close over the coming nine months."
By Scarlett Butler; scarlettbutler@alliancenews.com
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