TowerXchange takes a deep dive into the Asian tower industry, providing an updated (November 2019) edition of its comprehensive directory of the key MNOs, towercos, investors and advisory firms active in the market. Note that stakeholders in the Russian and Central Asian tower markets are covered in the TowerXchange’s European who’s who.
AB Hightech Consortium: One of the towercos licensed to operate in Bangladesh. The company is owned by various local shareholders including ADN Telecom, AB Hightech International, ZN Enterprise, Synergy Logistic and Orange Digital and by foreign shareholders China Communications Services International and Changshu Fengfan Power Equipment Company.
Alcazar Capital: Alcazar Capital Limited (ACL) is an investment advisory firm based in Dubai and focused on private investments advisory and asset management; Alcazar’s current portfolio of investments and assets under management exceeds US$1bn. Alcazar’s investments in the tower industry include Irrawaddy Green Towers in Myanmar and Golden Towers in Vietnam.
Altman Vilandrie & Co: AV&Co. has extensive tower industry experience spanning tens of engagements (including Latin America, Africa, Asia, North America, Europe) over ten years, including tower operator strategies as well as tower transaction due diligences. Their recent work has addressed a number of relevant topics such as the impact of small cells, the future opportunity for DAS and the changing role of rooftops.
American Tower: With its headquarters in the U.S., American Tower is to date the largest independent towerco in the world, operating a global portfolio of over 170,000 sites composed of towers in advanced, evolving and developing wireless markets, in the U.S., Central and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia with its growing presence in India.
American Tower has combined organic with selective inorganic growth in India. In the country, the company’s M&A activity began with the acquisition of 1,730 towers from XCEL Telecom for US$170mn in 2009, continued with the acquisition of 4,450 towers from Essar Telecom for US$432mn in 2010, and culminated in the acquisition of Viom Networks and their 42,200 towers, announced in October 2015, for US$1.17bn, taking a 51% stake in the company. In 2018, American Tower sealed two deals with Vodafone and Idea and added 20,100 towers to its portfolio which as of Q219 counts 75,113 pan-Indian towers. Airtel and Vodafone Idea are AMT’s main tenants across its Indian portfolio.
Analysys Mason: Analysys Mason are among the ‘go-to-guys’ for tower market analysis and due diligence on a global basis.
Apollo Towers Myanmar: Apollo Towers runs a portfolio of 1,800+ sites in Myanmar. Ahuja’s Tillman Global Holdings and Texas Pacific Group are the majority shareholders of the company, while OPIC (the Overseas Private Investment Corporation) undertook the single largest U.S. direct investment in Myanmar when they invested US$250mn in the towerco. Last year, TPG acquired of Pan Asia Majestic Eagle (PAMEL), which created the second biggest tower portfolio in Myanmar by acquiring 1,300 sites, although TPG manages both companies separately. Apollo provides a ‘full service’ tower and power offering.
Ascend Telecom: Incorporated in 2002, Ascend Telecom is an independent Indian towerco providing world-class passive telecom infrastructure on a shared, multi-tenancy basis for the mobile services and wireless sector. Ascend Telecom provides site location, design, execution and maintenance of infrastructure for telecom network operators, and is the first Indian company to offer sites with complete passive infrastructure to MNOs, on build-own-lease model (BOL) basis. As of November 2019, Ascend’s portfolio included 6,355 towers.
Axiata Group: Axiata is a leading telecommunications group in Asia and has controlling interests in six mobile operators under the brand names of Celcom in Malaysia, XL in Indonesia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, Robi in Bangladesh, Smart in Cambodia and Ncell in Nepal. Axiata also has strategic interests in Indian’s Idea and M1 in Singapore. Axiata carved out the first pan-regional towerco, edotco, which operates in six countries to provide optimised, shared telecoms infrastructure, amassing a portfolio of over 31,000 towers and 12,000 km of fibre.
Axicom: Axicom is Australia’s leading provider of independently owned wireless infrastructure. The company owns, operates and manages a portfolio of approximately 2,000+ towers in Australia. Crown Castle’s Australian subsidiary was renamed Axicom following the U.S. towerco’s sale of the business for US$1.6bn to a consortium including Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, UniSuper and UBS Global Asset Management. In early 2017 Axicom acquired 56 communications towers from broadcaster Southern Cross Austereo for A$12.6mn (US$9.25mn) to expand its footprint.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission: BTRC was formed on 31st January of 2002, under the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Act 2001. Its vision is to facilitate connecting the unconnected through quality telecommunication services at an affordable price by introducing new technologies. BTRC has been working on tower sharing guidelines (including a licensing regime), with a draft submitted for final government approval. Additional guidelines in the works include 4G rollout and associated fees. In 2018, BTRC licensed four towercos to operate in Bangladesh as well as handled the 4G spectrum auction.
Barclays: Barclays’ global investment banking division offers a leading Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) franchise. The TMT team has significant experience representing leading tower operators as well as telecom service providers around the globe on buy and sell side assignments. In this capacity, Barclays has supported its clients in the valuation and/or marketing of tower portfolios as well as the negotiation of various agreements associated with these transactions.
Balitower: Founded in 2006, PT Bali Towerindo Sentra Tbk is a telecommunication tower company that originated in the Indonesian province of Bali. Balitower was listed on the stock market in 2013, and in 2015 began to expand its footprint outside of Bali, mostly through its partnership with the government of Jakarta, managing the CCTV system in return for rights to exploit the poles as small cell locations. Through year end 2018, its portfolio consisted of 1,589 towers as well as a fibre optic network.
Beijing Miteno Communication Technology: One of China’s leading independent towercos with an estimated 4,500 towers. Miteno also has international ambitions and is an active bidder on tower transactions in Southeast Asia. The company is also a leading tower designer and manufacturer.
Beijing RLZY: Beijing Rui Lan Zuo Yue Technology began operations as a service provider to the three MNOs in China back in the early 2000s, before expanding its business to include tower leasing. It currently has 1000+ assets in its portfolio, which includes a mix of monopoles/towers, rooftops and streetlights.
Berkshire Partners: Berkshire was an early investor in Crown Castle, and currently has active investments in Protelindo (the largest towerco in Indonesia) and Tower Development Corporation in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel is an Indian mobile network operator, and ranks as one of the top four MNOs globally with operations across 20 countries in Africa and Asia. In India, Bharti Airtel carved out its own towerco, Bharti Infratel, and is a partner in the Indus Towers joint venture towerco. Bharti Airtel initially followed a similar strategy in Africa, creating “Africa Towers” subsidiaries in several countries, before subsequently selling towers in the majority of countries to a variety of African towercos.
As part of the consolidation that has hit all major Indian telecom players and towercos, Airtel has acquired Telenor India as well as Tata’s mobile businesses back in 2017. As of Q219, Airtel is the third MNO in India in terms of subscribers behind Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio.
Bharti Infratel: One of the pioneers of shared telecoms infrastructure, Bharti Infratel was created in 2007 as an independent tower company to provide compelling capex saving opportunities to telecom service providers, while optimally utilising Bharti Airtel’s large tower base in India.
Infratel owns and operates 41,050 towers, across eighteen states, and eleven telecom circles, and is still growing. Bharti Infratel also manages Bharti Airtel’s 42% stake in Indus Towers which was created as a joint venture between Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Aditya Birla Telecom to hive off the towers business in fifteen telecom circles.
In 2018, Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers have finally agreed to merge. The merger is expected to create the largest towerco in India and combine the two portfolios and know-how in a giant efficiency and rationalisation effort. The merger is expected to close before year end.
Broadcast Australia: Broadcast Australia owns and operates one of the most extensive terrestrial broadcast transmission networks in the world. With a diverse portfolio of structures ranging from 30m to over 230m masts, and as one of the most mature portfolios, it has the best regional and rural penetration among Australian tower companies across its 622 sites. Servicing not just broadcasters, it provides infrastructure leasing and related services to the majority of the MNOs, NBN Co., as well as other telecommunications players.
It is part of BAI Communications, which provides connectivity solutions in various metropolises in North and South America.
BSNL: BSNL is the State-owned telecommunications provider in India. It is the largest provider of fixed telephony and broadband services with more than 60% market share and fourth largest mobile network operator in India. BSNL has begun the process of carving out its own towerco, and has received “in-principle” approval from the Department of Telecommunications which will establish an inter-ministerial group to work out the capital and organisational structure of the new company, once a market valuation of BSNL’s 65,000+ tower assets is carried out. Its merger with the other State-run operator MTNL has long been mooted.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board: CPPIB is a professional investment management organisation that invests the funds of the Canada Pension Plan on behalf of its 20mn contributors and beneficiaries. CPP’s tower investments include 10.3% stakes in Bharti Infratel with KKR, bought at US$951.6mn. It is also part of the consortium led by KKR in talks to buy a significant stake in a combined Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers.
Carlyle Group: Founded in 1987 in Washington, DC, the Carlyle Group is a global alternative asset manager with US$170bn of assets under management across 299 investment vehicles. In 2012 it acquired ~25% stake in Indonesian towerco PT Solusi Tunas Pratama TBK (STP) for a reported US$100mn. The firm has been eyeing an exit since 2017.
Cam Towerlink: Established in 2013 in Cambodia by a group of three Malaysian shareholders, Cam Towerlink provides turnkey telecommunications infrastructure solutions for operators, including designing, constructing and operating telecoms towers and small cell sites. One of Cam Towerlink’s first projects is to deploy camouflaged telecoms coverage for the first time around the UNESCO protected Angkor Wat temple complex. The company, that provides tower + power, is currently providing services to Smart Axiata, Viettel, Cellcard and Seatel. CTL has ambitious expansion plans and aims to increase its portfolio and expand its footprint into neighbouring municipalities.
CAT Telecom: CAT Telecom is a Thai fixed and mobile network operator, and one of three State- backed companies operating a nationwide network. Thailand’s leading MNOs operate their networks under build-operate-transfer (BOT) partnerships with both CAT and their counterpart TOT, which has led to disputes about tower ownership as the BOT relationships conclude. CAT Telecom and DTAC have been in ongoing discussions to create a joint venture towerco, and transfer 9,000 disputed concession towers into it.
Centratama: PT Centratama Telecommunication Indonesia TBK is a listed towerco providing passive telecoms infrastructure along with its subsidiary PT Centratama Menara Indonesia, formerly known as PT Retower Asia.
As of Q219, the towerco managed 1,937 towers with 1.46x tenancy ratio and 842 in-building DAS sites with 1.87x tenancy ratio.
China Independent Tower Alliance (CITA): The China Independent Tower Alliance was inaugurated on 30 June, 2017, created under the leadership and guidance of the Communications Network Operation and Maintenance Committee (COMC) and in partnership with private towercos, telecom infrastructure builders, equipment and service providers, design consulting firms, academic and research institutes, and more. Its current membership consists of more than 200+ companies and organisations. It also established a provincial presence in Zhejiang this October.
China Mobile: Leading State-owned telecommunications services provider in Mainland China with the world’s largest mobile network and mobile customer base. The MNO reported total customer base of 925mn+ as of Q418. It is listed on both the Hong Kong and New York Stock Exchange (HKEX and NYSE). China Mobile owns 38% of China Tower Corporation, to which all its towers have been transferred.
China Reform Corporation: State-owned fund and asset manager. In October 2015 it injected CNY¥7.7bn (~US$1.2bn) in cash for a 6% stake in China Tower Corporation.
China Telecom: State-owned telecommunications services provider in Mainland China with the largest fixed-line service. Of the three MNOs in the country, China Telecom is third-ranked, with 303mn+ mobile subscribers as of Q418. All China Telecom’s towers have been transferred to China Tower Corporation, in which China Telecom owns a 27.9% stake.
China Tower Corporation: Established in July 2014, China Tower Corporation is the largest towerco in the world with 1.9mn towers. It is owned by China Mobile (38%), China Unicom (28.1%), China Telecom (27.9%) and China Reform Corporation (6%). Its IPO was launched in August 2018 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with the raised US$6.9bn, the largest IPO in last two years. China International Capital Corp Ltd (CICC) and Goldman Sachs were to lead the IPO with other ten cornerstone investors.
China Unicom: State-owned telecommunications services provider in Mainland China, ranked second behind China Mobile and ranked fourth globally by subscriber base. As of June 2019, China Unicom reported 324mn subscribers. All of China Unicom’s towers have been transferred to China Tower Corporation, in which China Unicom owns a 28.1% stake in. Of the three State-owned MNOs in the country, China Unicom was selected along with other SOEs to take part in the “mixed ownership” reform, to bring in additional investments (and potential resources) from private investors such as tech giants Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu.
Citi: One of the world’s leading tower transaction advisory groups can be found within the TMT team at Citi.
Common Tower: Common Tower Technologies Sdn. Bhd is an independent tower owner and operator in Malaysia, and is also one of the nation’s largest providers of professional site development services to companies in the telecommunications industry. CTTSB owns, operates and manages over 260 tower sites in Sabah following its appointment as the ‘State Backed Company’ to undertake the TIME2 Project in Sabah since 2005.
Delmec: The tower experts in consultation and engineering, providing global solutions to operators, towercos and regulators on standards, guidance and due diligence for portfolio management. Engaging audit, assessment and analysis for structural enhancement, capacity and maintenance as individual activities or by way of managed services.
Delta Partners: Delta Partners’ expertise in tower transactions includes M&As, capital raising, due diligence and strategy support to towercos, telecom operators and investors on network sharing, tower monetisation, transaction execution, structuring and operational streamlining. Most recently, it acted as the sole strategic and financial advisor to edotco on its acquisition of the Towershare portfolio in Pakistan (Tanzanite).
Deutsche Bank: Deutsche Bank provides M&A advisory services as well as financing services in the tower space, including both equity and debt products. Deutsche Bank has been involved in the tower sector on a global basis, successfully executing transactions in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (Philippines): DICT is the primary policy, planning, coordinating, implementing, and administrative entity of the Philippines government that plans, develops and promotes the national Information and Communications Technology development agenda. They are the telecoms regulator in the country, now responsible for the common tower share policy that is set to be released before the end of 2019.
DIF: The Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund, formerly known as TRUEGIF or TRUEIF, is a towerco solution created by Thai MNO True. It is Thailand’s first telecommunication infrastructure fund which invests in telecommunication infrastructure assets such as telecommunication towers, fibre optic cable system, transmission equipment, broadband system and/or revenue incurred from the assets, with extensive coverage nationwide. The purpose is to support the sharing use of telecommunications infrastructure, reduce investment redundancy in telecommunication infrastructure and enhance competition among operators to help increase efficiency of network services. The fund was listed in late 2013. The towerco owns approximately 15,271 across Thailand.
Dito Telecommunity: Previously known as Mislatel, Dito Telecommunity is the brand new, third Filipino MNO. The company, owned by local businessman Dennis A. Uy and state-owned China Telecom Corp, has committed to provide 37% coverage at an average internet speed of 27Mbps after receiving its mobile license, and is set to invest more than US$2.5bn on its rollout over the next few months. The company is in advanced commercial and technical conversations with vendors and infrastructure partners, aiming to build around 3,000 sites over the next year.
Eco-Friendly Towers (EFT): EFT is a subsidiary of diversified Myanmar conglomerate Young Investment Group. EFT secured an order for roughly 700 phase-three towers from Telenor, with ~550 sites built to date. EFT was initially the only towerco able to deploy and manage towers in several Northern Myanmar states, where security can be challenging, but TowerXchange sources have confirmed that EFT’s phase three contract is nationwide.
edotco: edotco is the first pan-regional tower provider in Asia, and is committed to deploying cost-efficient telecommunications infrastructure across the region by enabling competitive access for the industry and connectivity for communities. edotco is a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Axiata Group. Through private placements totalling US$700mn with INCJ, Khazanah and KWAP, Axiata’s share is now 62.4%.
With a regional portfolio that includes over 29,924 towers in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Myanmar, edotco strives to deliver outstanding operational efficiency in telecommunications infrastructure services and solutions. edotco’s tower portfolios in all six countries are managed in real-time at their headquarters in Kuala Lumpur by the state-of-the-art echo monitoring service.
edotco has been growing steadily since its founding in 2012, both organically through tower rollouts across its footprint, and inorganically through acquisitions, and continues to evaluate new opportunities for growth in Asia based on their merits. In 2017, it acquired ~700 towers from Towershare in Pakistan. The towerco’s average tenancy ratio across the region is 1.59, peaking at 2.12 in Myanmar.
Etisalat: Emirates Telecommunications Corporation operates in 16 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The telecommunications service provider has three opcos in Asia. Pakistani subsidiary Ufone has been exploring the sale and leaseback of its towers for a while now; while there may also be appetite to monetise, carve out or outsource their towers in Afghanistan. Etisalat’s Sri Lankan subsidiary retains their towers.
EY: TMT strategy and corporate finance advisory team with extensive experience of advising on tower transactions.
FMO: Dutch development bank 51% government owned, 49% by commercial banks and financial institutions. FMO arranged a subordinated loan of US$13mn to Irrawaddy Green Towers in Myanmar via its Infrastructure Development Fund.
Frontier Tower Solutions: Founded as an independent tower company by the corporate “parent” of Afghan Wireless Communications Company (AWCC) in 2012, the towerco operated in Afghanistan in the past but has since wound up operations in the country.
Gihon: PT. Gihon Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Gihon) was established in Jakarta in 2001, and has around 867 tenants on 565 towers as of June 2019.
Globe Telecom: Globe is the leading, biggest operator in the Philippines with almost 66mn subscribers. The company’s principal shareholders are Ayala Corporation and Singapore Telecommunications. It is listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GLO and had a market capitalization of US$3.8bn as of the end of June 2018. Globe is reportedly considering the possibility of carving out and creating its own infrastructure arm as Philippines prepares for a third MNO to enter the market. The company has around 8,000 sites across the country.
Gmobile: Vietnam fourth Mobile Network Operator with 6mn subscribers and 2,000 towers.
Golden Towers: Golden Towers is an independent tower company that operates in Vietnam. The company has around 350 across the country and is set for a big expansion as they aim to build and acquire 2,500 sites in the next two to three years. The towerco has recently closed a BTS deal with MobiFone for 100 new sites.
GTL Infrastructure: GTL Infrastructure is a publicly-listed tower company in India with a portfolio of ~28,000 towers across the country, serving all major telecoms service providers. Founded in 2004 and listed in 2006, GTL Infrastructure began expanding its portfolio in 2008 and acquired 17,500 towers from Aircel. However, the cancellation of 122 operator licenses by the government, slow uptake of 3G and price wars between service providers have left GTL Infrastructure with a heavy debt burden. In spite of the many announcements with regards to its change of ownership, a substantial change is yet to materialise and to date, the towerco is still facing severe financial issues.
Guodong Network: The largest independent towerco in China with a tower count of ~15,000, all through organic growth. Headquartered in Shanghai, it has a nationwide presence in the country and has completed its IPO in 2018.
Hardiman Telecommunications: A unique consultancy equally capable advising on engineering and operational issues as they are on commercial strategy and corporate finance. Extensive experience advising on both the buy-side and sell-side in tower transactions.
Herbert Smith Freehills: International law firm that advised edotco on its transactions with Towershare and Jazz in Pakistan.
Hutchison: Hutchison 3G is an MNO with a presence in multiple countries across Europe and Asia. In recent years, it has been involved in tower transactions in Australia, where some of its assets were sold to Crown Castle Australia (now Axicom), and in Indonesia where it negotiated a sale and leaseback deal of 3,692 towers with Protelindo.
IBS Tower: Founded in 2006 and listed in August 2012, PT Inti Bangun Sejahtera Tbk (IBS) is one of Indonesia’s “big four” publicly traded independent tower companies. Starting as an in-building system solution provider, IBS has since focussed its resources on ground based towers, earning it a significant presence in the market. The company owns approximately 5,000 towers as of Q418 and in 2018 embarked in the construction of more than 6,000km of national-scale fiber optic network.
IDFC Alternatives: Private equity arm of IDFC group that manages over US$3.4bn on behalf of leading institutional investors from across the world. In April 2017 it purchased a 33% stake in Ascend Telecom for US$91.2mn. The deal involved Rs 365 crore of shares and Rs 220 crore of convertible debentures, as well as IDFC Bank refinancing Ascend Telecom’s loans of Rs 620 crore.
Indus Towers: Incorporated in 2007, Indus Towers is a joint venture towerco founded by Bharti Infratel, Vodafone India, Aditya Birla Telecom (Idea) with a portfolio of nearly 128,000 towers. In 2018, the towerco announced plans to merge with Bharti Infratel and create the largest towerco in India and one of the largest in the world (behind Chinese CTC). The merger is currently being delayed and should be sealed in Q419.
ING: Leading Dutch bank with considerable experience of providing debt finance to the tower industry.
Innovation Network Corporation of Japan: INCJ was launched in July 2009 and is a unique public- private partnership aimed at promoting innovation and enhancing the value of businesses in Japan. It has a market cap of JPY300bn, with the Japanese government injecting JPY286bn and 26 private corporations providing a further JPY14bn. The government will also provide guarantees up to a total of JPY1,800bn for INCJ investments, giving it an investment capability of approximately JPY2,000bn.
INCJ will be established for a period of 15 years. It was part of edotco’s private placement in late 2016, investing US$400mn for a 21.5% stake in edotco. It also invested in IBS firm JTOWER when it first launched.
International Finance Corporation (IFC): The IFC is a member of the World Bank Group, the world’s leading DFI. The IFC has invested around half a billion dollars in debt and equity into eight towercos across emerging markets, with an objective to double that total investment by 2018.
In June 2017, it closed its investment in Myanmar towerco Irrawaddy Green Towers (IGT) of US$95mn (including a parallel loan of US$42.5mn).
IPT Powertech: IPT PowerTech Group delivers specialised solutions to the power, industrial and telecom sectors in Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia. The group is recognised as a global leader in the provision of Guaranteed Savings and T-ESCO models, including operating the energy equipment across the footprint of Ooredoo Myanmar.
Irrawaddy Green Towers: IGT is the largest towerco in Myanmar with over 3,000 sites across the country. IGT’s sponsors still include Alcazar Capital, plus EPC Investors, M1 Group and Barons Telelink (a local Myanmar company). IGT provides a ‘full service’ tower+power offering.
Jio: Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited is the brainchild of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, which launched in the fall of 2016 as a 4G LTE mobile network operator in India. In just over two years, Jio has amassed 350mn customers across India (q219) and was among the main drivers of the major rationalisation and consolidation currently hitting Indian MNOs, leading to mergers between Vodafone and Idea Cellular, as well as Bharti Airtel with Telenor India and Tata.
In 2018, the MNO separated its towers and fibre businesses into two separate entities, with Reliance Jio Infratel now being the largest towerco across India (175,000 sites). The newly created towerco will soon be controlled by Brookfield as part of a 2019 deal worth US$3.7bn.
JTOWER: Founded in 2012, JTOWER is the sole provider of in-building telecom infrastructure sharing solutions in Japan. Its proprietary in- building Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) are used in prominent establishments across Japan, including commercial complexes and office buildings, by all three major mobile network operators (NTT DOCOMO, KDDI and Softbank). The system is MIMO-ready active DAS and covers six bands used by the Japanese MNOs.
In late July 2017, JTOWER purchased the IBS component of the SEATH portfolio (120+ IBS in Vietnam) for US$10.2mn, marking its first expansion outside of Japan; it is also exploring other regional opportunities.
JP Morgan: Leading TMT advisory team with extensive experience in towers, including some of the landmark transactions. It was the sole placement agent for edotco’s transaction with Khazanah, INCJ and KWAP.
Khazanah Nasional Berhad: It is the strategic investment fund of the Government of Malaysia. Khazanah holds and manages selected commercial assets of the Government and undertakes strategic investments on behalf of the nation. It is involved in sectors such as power, telecommunications, finance, healthcare, aviation, infrastructure, leisure and tourism, and property. In December 2016 the fund invested US$200mn in exchange for a 10.7% stake in edotco.
Kirtonkhola Tower: The towerco is one of the four licensed entities allowed to operate in Bangladesh. The company is owned by Confidence Group.
KJS: KJS is a State-backed towerco created in partnership with the Malaysian state of Selangor. KJS processes all applications related to telecoms in Selangor, and builds and leases telecoms infrastructure to service providers. KJS has built towers, monopoles and lamp poles on private and state agency land in Selangor and owned and operated approximately 500 towers.
Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR): Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit and, through its strategic partners, hedge funds. In March 2017, KKR and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) bought a 10.3% stake in Bharti Infratel for Rs 6,193 crore (US$951.6mn). KKR previously invested in the Indian towerco between 2008 and 2015. Following the merger of Indus and Bharti, KKR and CCPIB will together hold a 6% stake in the newly formed entity.
Komet Infra Nusantara (KIN): KIN as a rollup towerco trading solely in Indonesia, having consolidated the assets of Tara, Komet, Corona, Telematika, and Ida Lombok since 2014. In June 2018, KIN was acquired by Protelindo’s mother company Sarana Menara Nusantara.
KPR Towers: Renowned ‘tower doctors’ – go-to guys for structural and technical due diligence, improvement capex planning, decommissioning and just about anything to do with tower design and maintenance. KPR consultants renamed to KPR Towers in October 2017 and began looking for investment opportunities in Scandinavia, India and Myanmar, where the company is currently finalising a deal to acquire MIG.
KWAP: Kumpulan Wang Persaraan is the second largest pension fund in Malaysia. KWAP took part in edotco’s private placement exercise, investing US$100mn for 5.4% stake in the towerco.
Macquarie Group: Serial towerco investors, with capital at work in Europe within Arqiva and Russian Towers, and farther afield with Axicom (formerly Crown Castle Australia), Mexico Tower Partners and Viom Networks (now American Tower). Macquarie Capital also has an excellent TMT advisory practice with experience of advising on tower transactions, however, it has recently shifted to focus on its main investments in Asia, rather than advisory.
Myanmar Infrastructure Group (MIG): MIG is a joint venture between majority shareholder Singapore Myanmar Investco (SMI) and Golden Infrastructure Group (GIG). MIG had proved themselves building rooftops and poles for both Telenor and Ooredoo in Yangon, as well as executing a substantial DAS project within Yangon’s airport, off the back of which they secured a contract to build 503 towers in phase three of Ooredoo’s rollout. MIG had access to the capital markets via SMI’s Singapore stock exchange listing. MIG provides a full service tower+power proposition. In October 2016 the sale of MIG to Shining Star International (headquartered in Kunming) for US$12.7mn was announced; unfortunately a few months later, the deal collapsed. The company is currently being acquired by KPR Towers.
Mitratel: Founded in 1995, PT. Dayamitra Telecommunications (Mitratel) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Telkom). The company was to be transferred to Tower Bersama Group under an innovative share- swap structure, but the deal was overruled by the Indonesian government in Q3 2015. Mitratel has recently acquired 2,100 sites from Indosat Ooredoo and its current tower count is 15,213. Mitratel is said to receive approximately 50% of Telkomsel’s BTS orders.
MNTI: Small independent towerco created in Myanmar by MNTH after Mytel’s irruption. The company closed a BTS deal with Mytel for 400 sites, of which 371 has been already built.
MobiFone: This state-owned operator is the second biggest MNO in Vietnam serving approximately 34.8mn customers. The company owns around 20,000 sites across the country and as all operators do in Vietnam, MobiFone runs the whole operation on their sites,from energy management to fibre deployment.
MPT Myanmar: Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT) is the State-backed incumbent operator in Myanmar, and is also backed by the KDDI-Sumitomo joint venture KGSM. MPT remains the market leader, although its market share declined from 66.6% to 44% from Q4 2014 to now.
In the first half of 2016, MPT started to share its infrastructure with the other MNOs. It has also changed its capex model, shifting to build-to-suit (BTS) with the towercos rather than building through turnkey providers such as Huawei and ZTE. As it awards BTS contracts to various towercos as a test, awarding more orders subject to proven success, MPT was also described as likely to do more co-locations down the road. Since the MPT-KSGM partnership in 2014, MPT has built approximately 1,200 to 1,300 new towers.
MTNL: Indian State-owned operator currently considering the divestment of its 10,000 tower portfolio as well as a merger with the other State- owned MNO BSNL.
Myanmar Investments International Limited (AIM: MIL): The first Myanmar-focused investment company to be admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. MIL was established in 2013. Its largest investment (US$21mn cost for a 9.3% shareholding) is in Apollo Towers.
Myanmar National Tele & Communications (Mytel): The recently launched fourth operator in Myanmar is a joint venture between Vietnam’s Viettel and a consortium of 11 local companies (Myanmar National Telecom Holding Public Limited). Mytel received its license in January 2017 and started operations in June, capturing 3 million subscribers in the last three months. Mytel is set to invest US$2bn within its 15-year license period to deploy and improve its network. The company has already invested more than US$1bn and has deployed 5,000 Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) as well as rolled out 30,000km of fibre-optic cable.
National Tower Development (NTD): NTD is a new towerco in Myanmar, launching in 2017 to take advantage of the new fourth operator Mytel’s network rollout in the country. It also has exclusive rights to build monopoles and lamp posts in the Mandalay region.
Naza Communications: Formerly known as Premium Radius, Naza Communications is part of privately-held Naza Group in Malaysia. Started in 2014, the towerco is positioning itself to be more than just a site-based asset provider to the mobile network operators in the country, investing in RAN sharing solutions on top of tower leasing.
New Silk Route: New Silk Route is a US$1.4bn private equity firm that invests in private companies in India, Asia, and the Middle East. Its investments in the telecommunications infrastructure industry include Ascend Telecom in India.
Nordic Teleservices: Founded in 2014, NTS has grown to become one of the leading companies in Myanmar to provide green technology solutions at the lowest carbon footprint in the market for both telecom operators and towercos. NTS specialises in hybrid power solutions, site management and maintenance services for the telecom industry, and are believed to be one of the country’s two largest T-ESCOs.
Now Telecom: This niche operator has recently renewed a 25-years franchise to provide fixed wireless, mobile and satellite internet services in the Philippines. Now Telecom only targets enterprises and provides fixed wireless access to different business in Metro Manila using its portfolio of 400 radio antennas that are located in rooftops across the capital.
OCK Group: Founded in 2000 in Malaysia, OCK Group’s telecommunication network service provides end-to-end full-turnkey service that includes the design, building and maintenance of telecommunications infrastructure. It was listed on the ACE MARKET of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad in July 2012. Since then it has expanded into new markets, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam.
In Malaysia, OCK owns and manages 424 towers as of Q219. In Myanmar, to date, the Group has completed and handed over 969 sites and is still rolling out its current outstanding orderbook of more than 500 towers. In Vietnam, the Group is currently the largest independent towerco with a portfolio of more than 2,673 sites. As of Q219, OCK owns and operates a portfolio of over 4,000 sites across multiple markets.
Omnix: Omnix was established in 2011 as an independent towerco to meet the operator demand for mobile coverage in urban and suburban areas of peninsula Malaysia. One of its main value propositions is the land bank it secured through government and private site ground tenancy agreements with the Islamic Council in Malaysia, giving it access to highly coveted but difficult to acquire sites. Over the summer it also secured an agreement with the Ministry of Education.
Ooredoo: Ooredoo, formerly known as Qtel, is the incumbent mobile network operator in Qatar, and also has extensive international operations in Indonesia (Indosat) and Myanmar, where it was one of the original two international operators to receive a license to build telecommunications infrastructure. Indosat served 56.7mn customers while Ooredoo Myanmar 11.1mn as of Q219.
In Myanmar, the company initially chose to retain ownership of power assets when having sites built by third party towercos, outsourcing management of the equipment to ESCO IPT, but recently Ooredoo transferred control of energy management to edotco at their 1,250 sites.
Its Indonesian subsidiary Indosat Ooredoo has recently closed two sale and leaseback agreements with towercos Protelindo and Mitratel. The MNO will be transferring 3,100 on two deals that are expected to generate around US$452mn.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC): The U.S. Government’s development finance institution. It mobilises private capital to help address critical development challenges and in doing so, advances U.S. foreign policy and national security priorities. In June 2016, OPIC provided a US $250mn debt facility to Apollo Towers.
PAMEL: Pan Asia Majestic Eagle Limited (PAMEL, sometimes referred to as Pan Asia Towers or PAT) is currently being acquired by Apollo Towers’ majority shareholder TPG. The company initially built 1,250 towers for Ooredoo in Myanmar in phases one and two. Along with Michael Gearon, PAMEL shares management DNA with Indonesia’s Protelindo, but remains a distinct entity.
PEKAPE: PT. PERMATA KARYA PERDANA was founded in 2013, beginning operations in mid-2014, with the vision to be a premier telecommunications infrastructure provider in Indonesia. Its mission
is to facilitate faster and more economic roll-out of wireless operations throughout Indonesia including countryside and remote areas, as well as urban city centres. Through its partnership with Alfa Mart, one of the leading retailers in the country, PEKAPE is uniquely positioned to offer some of the best locations desired by MNOs for coverage, infill and capacity.
Persada Sokka Tama: The towerco was established in 2006 and has been active mostly in Java and Nusa Tenggara. In March 2019, the PST - which at the time owned 1,017 sites - was acquired by Mitratel.
Protelindo: Brainchild of Michael Gearon and his loyal management team, Protelindo is the largest towerco in Indonesia where they own ~19,152 towers. Over the last two years, Protelindo has significantly improved its scale and credit profile. Its leverage has strengthened through EBITDA growth, enabled by a significant increase in the number of tenancies on its towers.
Protelindo has also begun to diversify into microcell assets and fibre to support the continued organic and inorganic growth of its portfolio. The company acquired iForte in June 2015 along with its 450 microcell towers, seven hotel BTS and 700km of fibre with over 180 PoPs in the city centre and business districts in Jakarta and Surabaya. In 2018, Protelindo announced the acquisition of Providence’s backed KIN and its 1,400 towers for a total value of US$101.7mn. In October 2019, the company has sealed a deal with Indosat Ooredoo for an additional 1,000 sites.
Providence Equity Partners: A global private equity and credit investment firm with more than US$50bn in capital under management; Providence are communications and media investment specialists. In 2018, Providence sold its stake in KIN to Protelindo and exited Indonesia, in line with its 2017 announcement to exit the Asian market. The firm still owns a 4.8% stake in Indus Towers but following the merger with Bharti, Providence will have the option to either receive cash or shares for 3.35% of its 4.85% stake in Indus, with the balance exchanged for shares. Providence also has capital at work in Brazil with Grupo TorreSur.
Post and Telecommunications Department (PTD): Part of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, PTD is the telecommunications regulator in Myanmar, responsible for both spectrum and license fees.
PT Wellington Capital Advisory: PT Wellington Capital Advisory (WCA) is a privately-held, fully- independent professional services firm, with offices in Jakarta and Singapore. They assist clients to develop and leverage significant investments in the TMT space within Indonesia and throughout Southeast Asia, with particular emphasis on opportunities in the rapidly-evolving tower industry.
Q Towers: Independent towerco with ~120 towers and an impressive tenancy ratio of 2.8 in China; one of its backers is a Texas-based hedge fund.
Rakuten Mobile: Last year, Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten received a license to operate and become the fourth MNO in the country. The company was planning to launch its services in October 2019, but the CEO has confirmed that they won’t be offering their services until spring 2020 due some delays on their national network rollout.
Redpeak Advisers: Based in Singapore with a core team of ex-Macquarie Capital staff, including Anupam Garg and Kingston Pang, Redpeak is a boutique corporate finance adviser focused on the TMT sector in the ASEAN region.
Reliance Communications: Reliance Communications (RCom) was an operator part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. In light of the increasing competition and pressure across Indian telecoms, RCom announced its intention to merge with Maxis’ Aircel in 2017. The deal was expected to relieve some of RCom’s financial pressure and piling debts but it was later cancelled, leading the company to insolvency and to discontinue its voice services.
Reliance Infratel: In an effort to reduce debt, RCom has been trying to sell its ~43,000 towers since late 2015; a period of exclusive negotiations with TPG Capital and Tillman Global Holdings fell through due to a dispute over the valuation of assets. More recently, Brookfield Asset Management was interested in acquiring the towerco’s real estate portfolio while Jio is seeking to buy its spectrum and towers. To date though, the company is still dealing with its bankruptcy procedure.
SACOFA: SACOFA is a State-backed towerco providing BTS services and is based in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. SACOFA has over 700 towers across Sarawak, and has signed an agreement with Malaysian MNO U Mobile to expand their network coverage in this state. In addition to its tower portfolio, SACOFA also operates a 950km submarine cable between Sarawak and West Malaysia, and a 4,000km fibre optic trunk network between Kuching and Lawas in Sarawak.
Saurava Towers: Saurava Towers is an Indian towerco founded in 2008, providing managed services and passive infrastructure for telecoms service providers. Services include site acquisition, tower deployment, and site operation and maintenance. The company runs a portfolio of approximately 100 sites in India.
SEATH: The largest towerco in Vietnam was Southeast Asia Telecommunications Holdings (SEATH), itself the product of rolling up three smaller towercos with a reported book value of US$58.7mn in Q2 2016. SEATH was a holding company owned by VNI (VinaCapital’s Vietnam Infrastructure Limited). According to the company’s report from Q1 2015, they had 1,924 towers in Vietnam with a tenancy ratio of 1.2, an EBITDA margin of 54.1% and net margin of 15.2%. In January 2017, the tower portion of the portfolio (1,972) was sold to OCK Group for US$50mn, with Japan-based JTOWER purchasing the IBS portfolio for US$10.2mn.
Sino Netstone: Independent towerco in China created in 2013. Headquartered in Beijing, it has an estimated portfolio of about 3,000 tower sites included nearly 1,000 monopoles.
Smart (PLTD): Main and only Globe’s competitor in the Philippines, Smart is the second MNO in the country with 62 mn customers.
SREI Infrastructure Finance: SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited is a leading infrastructure financing conglomerate in India, and one of the first companies to lay the groundwork for telecoms infrastructure sharing. Prior to the sale to American Tower, SREI was the managing shareholder in Viom Networks, and merged with associate company Quippo in 2010. Founded by the Kanoria family, Quippo provides construction equipment rental, energy rental, oil and gas equipment rental and telecom tower infrastructure rentals. Quippo is currently exploring tower and telecom infrastructure opportunities outside India.
Solusi Tunas Pratama (STP): Listed on the Indonesian stock exchange in 2011, Solusi Tunas Pratama’s (STP) consolidated its position as the third largest independent towerco in Indonesia with its acquisition of 3,500 towers from XL in December 2014. This followed the acquisition of existing portfolios from other local operators such as Axis, Bakrie and Hutchison. STP started building its own towers in December 2012 to achieve organic growth in addition to acquiring existing portfolios. Shareholders Carlyle and Southern Capital who collectively own ~69% have announced their intention to exit in 2017.
As of Q418, STP owned and operated over 6,451 sites across Indonesia, with a total of 6,412 towers comprising 5,979 macro towers and 433 microcell poles, with 10,492 tenancies, for a tenancy ratio of 1.64x. STP also run two shelter-only sites, 37 indoor DAS networks, and 3,000 km of fiber optic networks throughout Indonesia, including 1,643 km in the Greater Jakarta Region.
TASC Summit Towers: One of the towercos that received a license to operate in Bangladesh. TASC is also the largest fibre operator in the country and have so far connected hundreds of towers to its network. One of the towerco’s foreign shareholders, TASC Towers, is mainly active in the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon and UAE) but has been eyeing opportunities in other regions such as Africa too. TASC Summit lists Summit Corporation Ltd. as local partner and Global Holding Corporation Private Ltd. as additional foreign shareholder.
Tata Teleservices: Tata Teleservices created a joint venture with NTT Docomo in November 2018 and operates in India under the brand Tata Docomo. In October 2017, Bharti Airtel announced the acquisition of Tata Teleservices.
Telkomsel: PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia is the incumbent telecommunications provider in Indonesia, and holds the largest share of the market. Telkomsel has Indonesia’s largest and most pervasive tower network, some of which remain on its own balance sheet, some of which have been transferred to wholly owned towerco subsidiary Mitratel. Telkom explored the transfer of Mitratel and its assets to Tower Bersama Group in a unique share-swap deal which was ultimately refused by the government in mid-2015.
Telenor: Telenor is the incumbent telecommunications provider in Norway, and owns networks in twelve countries and has operations in 29 countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand and Myanmar. Historically, Telenor has tended to partner with towercos rather than sell and leaseback towers. In Thailand, Telenor’s subsidiary DTAC is in the process of negotiating a joint venture towerco with State-backed Thai operator CAT Telecom.
In Myanmar Telenor was one of the first foreign operators to obtain a license to build and operate telecommunications infrastructure in this greenfield market, and launched 4G services in
the nation’s capital Nay Pyi Taw in July 2016. It has been expanding its 4G services steadily since picking up the 1800MHz spectrum in May 2017 at the price of US$80mn. It currently has a network of ~7,400 towers, the majority of which are tenancies on private towerco towers, and their network covers roughly 90% of the country’s population and townships. It also has retained assets of 1,200 sites, which are predominantly rooftops, which are believed to be up for sale. Total investments in the country are said to be over US$1.5bn. Telenor Myanmar’s subscriber base has grown to ~19mn for Q317, and it holds 40% market share.
Tillman Global Holdings (TGH): Multinational tower and infrastructure investment and operations firm led by Sanjiv Ahuja, former Chairman and co-founder of Eaton Towers and ex-CEO of Orange. TGH has a substantial stake in Apollo Towers Myanmar, which Ahuja chairs, and a joint venture partnership with JC Decaux, giving them the opportunity to locate points of service, particularly small cells, on over 1mn prime locations worldwide.
Tillman Global Tower Solutions: Tillman GTS is a joint venture with Global Tower Solutions, created to tackle both utility scale ground mounted solar solutions, and also to offer financing to or operate Energy Services Companies (ESCOs). Tillman GTS proposes to take the risk, and invest the capex in telecom ESCO projects in Asia and Africa. Tillman is planning to deploy ~US$700mn of capital for this venture over the next three to five years, either working to finance contracts for existing ESCOs or building and operating the ESCO themselves with O&M partners.
TOT: State-backed Thai MNO which has entered into discussions with Thai MNO AIS to create a joint venture towerco, but to date no major announcements have been made. Thailand’s leading MNOs operate their networks under build- operate-transfer (BOT) partnerships with both TOT and their counterpart CAT, which has lead to disputes about tower ownership as the BOT relationships conclude.
Tower Bersama: Based in Indonesia, the Tower Bersama Group comprises several rolled up towercos including PT Tower Bersama, PT United Towerindo, PT Telenet Internusa, PT Batavia Towerindo, PT Bali Telekom, PT Prima Media Selaras and PT Triaka Bersama, all operated seamlessly under one management team. The group’s infrastructure extends to Java, Bali, Sumatra and Batam and is currently being expanded into Kalimantan and Sulawesi.
Tower Bersama has steadily grown its tower portfolio organically, as well as through acquisitions of smaller towercos, and with buy and leasebacks with Indonesia’s operators. A share-swap to gain control of Telkom subsidiary Mitratel was planned, but was overruled by the government in Q315.
As of Q219, the towerco owned 15,131 sites of which around 60 are DAS networks. With total tenants amounting to 25,459, the tenancy ratio is 1.69.
Tower Vision: Tower Vision is an Indian towerco specialising in the provision of passive infrastructure to the wireless telecommunications industry with expertise in tower rollouts, operation and maintenance. Tower Vision owns and operates ~8,400 sites with a tenancy ratio of 2.0 and offers greenfield towers, rooftops, and in-building distributed antenna systems to MNOs across India. Tower Vision has been rumoured to be a consolidation target for several years.
TrueMove: TrueMove is a State-backed Thai MNO, and one of three companies given a concession to build and operate a nationwide 900 MHz band and 1,800 MHz band network in the 1990s. True has created a separate entity for its tower assets in DIF, an infrastructure fund. To date True hasn’t engaged in negotiations with other operators to create a joint venture towerco.
Veon: Formerly knowns as VimpelCom Ltd., Veon is a leading global provider of connectivity and internet services headquartered in Amsterdam and serving more than 235 million customers. It has operations in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Georgia, Algeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Italy (as a JV with Hutchison Group).
Vietnamobile: The smallest operator in Vietnam with just 3.6mn customers and around 4,000 towers.
Viettel: Vietnamese military-controlled Viettel is one of the world’s most expanding MNOs, having recently launched operations in Myanmar though Mytel, which became the 10th international market where the company operates. Viettel’s overseas footprint extends all the way from Southeast Asia to Africa, and the company has investments in operators in Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Haiti, Laos, Mozambique, Myanmar, Peru, Tanzania and East Timor. Since 2009, Viettel Group has captured more than 90mn customers globally and aims to become one of the world’s top ten telecoms companies by 2020.
In Vietnam, Viettel is by far the largest infrastructure player and certainly the biggest 3G and 4G provider with 40,000 macro towers and a total of 67,000 base transceiver stations (BTS).
VimpelCom: See Veon.
Vinson & Elkins: Vinson & Elkins is one of the oldest and largest international law firms, with approximately 700 lawyers located in 15 offices around the world. Its global telecommunications team has extensive experience advising on international telecoms and telecoms infrastructure transactions in numerous countries.
VNPT-Vinaphone: Owned by State-run company Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, VNPT-VInaphone is the third operator in Vietnam with more than 20 mn customers. The company has 20,000 towers across the country, with a focus on urban areas such as Hanoi and HCMC.
Vodafone: Vodafone Group plc is an international telecommunications company, with headquarters in London, UK. Vodafone owns and operates networks in 26 countries and has partner networks in over 50 additional countries. In India, Vodafone has recently merged with Idea Cellular and created Vodafone India Limited. The MNO is also one of Indus Towers’ shareholders. Earlier this year, Vodafone India sold its towers to American Tower. Vodafone also has an opco in Australia, which sold part of their tower portfolio several years ago.
XL Axiata: XL is a mobile operator in Indonesia, and a fully owned subsidiary of the Axiata Group. XL has sought to reduce its tower footprint over the past few years, selling 3,500 towers to STP in 2014, and more recently 2,500 towers to Protelindo in 2016. XL retains a few thousand strategic sites.
Yiked Bina: Yiked Bina Sdn Bhd is a State-backed towerco active in the Malaysian state of Kedah. To date Yiked Bina owns and operates over 200 towers in Kedah, and clients include telecommunications service providers such as Telekom Malaysia, Celcom Axiata, Maxis, DiGi Telecommunication, U-Mobile, Sapura and Wi-MAX operators such as Packet One and YTL Communications.
Zhejiang WanXing Group: A Chinese independent towerco based in Hangzhou City. the company has own around 700 towers and has its own R&D centre.
