MTN Group is seeking Nigerian investors to buy a 30 percent stake in IHS Nigeria, a move that could raise between $900 million and $1.1 billion and satisfy a key condition attached to its proposed takeover of IHS Towers.
People familiar with the matter said that MTN is looking for local investors for the stake, which must be sold at market-based prices. MTN has not disclosed the names of potential investors or the structure of the proposed sale.
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The sell-down is not a voluntary disposal. It is a condition imposed by Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) as part of its conditional approval of MTN’s planned $6.2 billion acquisition of IHS Towers. Under the agreement, MTN must sell up to 30 percent of the Nigerian component of IHS to local investors on an arm’s-length commercial basis and subject to market conditions.
The size of the proposed stake gives the transaction a potentially significant role in Nigeria’s capital market. A sale of as much as $1.1 billion would create one of the larger opportunities in recent years for Nigerian institutions to take direct ownership of critical telecommunications infrastructure.
