Helios Towers, the telecommunication tower management company whose main shareholder is the private equity Helios Investment, announced that it would invest tens of million dollars in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Bloomberg announced quoting the high management.  

This investment is to support the expansion of Vodacom (South African group) and Orange (French) who want to gain a greater advantage of the 4G license DR Congo recently delivered to them. It will be used to acquire local telecommunication tower management companies unable to meet the needs of mobile phone operators.

Helios Towers, which recently canceled its project to launch on the London Stock Exchange, plans to invest in some other African countries namely Ghana, Tanzania and Congo Brazzaville. Architecture changes and regulations in the telecommunication sector is providing investment opportunities to equipment providers.

Orange is experiencing an effective expansion of its subsidiary in DR Congo with a customer base which reached a record number of 9.6 million at the end of Q2, 2018. The base’s growth potential is still important in this country of more than 80 million citizens. During the said period, the subsidiary’s revenues were €119 million.

For Vodacom Congo, things seem more complex. Indeed, according to the OHADA Accounting Plan standards, the group does not have sufficient equity capital. It is already trying to boost its equity capital and should undoubtedly monitor the competition. At the end of the 2017 fiscal year (which ended in March 2018) the company had 12 million subscribers, 4.5 million of which were connected to internet and 1.2 million being mobile money subscribers. At the time, all those figures represented 21% growth on average.

Idriss Linge