MTN’s acquisition of full control of Africa’s largest cellphone tower operator IHS Towers has moved a step closer after IHS shareholders gave the deal the green light.MTN announced earlier this year that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the 75% of IHS shares it doesn’t already own for $2.2bn (R36bn) in an all-cash transaction. It expects the acquisition to result in increased service revenue and core earnings margin expansion.MTN said on Wednesday that at an extraordinary general meeting held on Tuesday, IHS shareholders approved the transaction with the requisite two-thirds majority. That fulfils one of the conditions to the transaction.“The approval by IHS shareholders is an important step towards the completion of the transaction,” MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita said. “Within our Ambition 2030, the three-platform strategy, towers are a critical value-creation driver that will strengthen MTN’s strategic and financial position for the future, in a world where digital infrastructure and AI are becoming increasingly essential to Africa’s growth and development,” he added.The necessary regulatory approvals to conclude the deal are ongoing, MTN said.Business Day reported previously that after the deal, which values IHS at $6.2bn, the tower operator will delist from the New York Stock Exchange.The synergies for the transaction are clear — MTN operates in all of IHS’s African markets and IHS derives about 70% of its revenue from MTN.The Mupita-led telecom major said at the time of announcing the deal that it will amplify the group’s ability to cater to its own network requirements and provide solutions for wholesale customers.“The transaction will help to enhance and accelerate the scaling of MTN’s digital infrastructure platform, which is spearheading the group’s strategic priority to consolidate passive infrastructure critical to network performance and rollout,” the group said in a regulatory filing.“This includes the densification of networks to support evolving 5G and fixed wireless access requirements …. We anticipate MTN to benefit from the strong financial merits of the transaction, with service-revenue uplift and ebitda margin expansion as ownership economics and efficiency initiatives are realised. We expect the transaction to result in net income and free cash flow accretion.”The successful conclusion of the deal would start a new chapter for a long-running partnership between the two African operators, whose relationship has been a symbiosis of aligned business interests, punctuated by moments of boardroom rivalry.As IHS’ largest shareholder with a one-quarter stake, MTN has been mulling the future of its investment in the Nigerian tower company for a few years.The relationship between the two companies has had its ups and downs. In August 2024, IHS and MTN put aside some of their differences, announcing a renegotiated agreement for the mobile operator’s tower leases in Nigeria. The move helped MTN to reduce the amounts that it has to pay for the infrastructure in foreign currency, specifically the dollar.With Kabelo Khumalo and Mudiwa Gavaza.Business Day