US-owned Frontier Tower Solutions (FTS) is expected to close a number of tower deals in developing markets in the coming months, TMT Finance reports, citing anonymous sources. The company intends to target ‘less obvious’ markets in an effort to increase its global tower portfolio, and has held talks with the likes of MTN Afghanistan, U-Com Burundi and Central African Republic-based Telecel-RCA.
The latter companies are currently owned by Amsterdam-based Vimpelcom, but are expected to be sold to Luxembourg-based Niel Telecom later this year in a deal worth around EUR75 million (USD97.3 million). According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Niel Telecom’s management team includes Adrian Tiwari, former Finance Director at LAP Green Network, and Robert Hankes a banking specialist with experience in the East African telecoms sector. Meanwhile, FTS claims to have built and managed over 1,200 towers in Afghanistan and Iraq – and is now focused on lining up deals in East Africa and the Americas.