Helios Towers has announced it’s 2024 financial results, reflecting the towerco’s strategic focus on pursuing organic growth through tenancy ratio expansion and reducing net debt to drive return on invested capital and generating positive free cash flow.
Helios Towers previously announced a switch in it's goal from reaching 22,000 towers to reaching a tenancy ratio of 2.2X, reflecting changes in the market that favoured driving up asset valuations and organic growth over acquisitions.
Tenancies increased 9.2% YoY with 385 added in Q4, driving total tenancy ratio up to 2.0x, up 0.14X YoY. This also helped increase revenues to US$792mn, up 9.8% YoY, and reducing net debt to 4.0X which is down 0.4X, another key strategic goal for the towerco.
Having broken even on cashflow Helios Towers announced that it now has capacity to commence a dividend program in 2026.
Driven by increasing demand for mobile coverage and densification, Helios Towers expects to add another 2,000 – 2,500 tenancy additions across FY2025, while also reducing net leverage further to 3.5X.
Speaking to CEO Tom Greenwood about the results, organic growth will remain the primary focus for the towerco “for the foreseeable future”, as demand for new infrastructure is increasing across all markets. Total data consumption across MEA is forecasted to grow 4X over the next 5 years, primarily driven by the maturity of 4G networks, early 5G rollout, and fast-growing GB usage per month per user.
M&A is unlikely to return as a result, as organic growth is the primary opportunity to create more value than further acquisitions, driving cashflow, deleveraging and providing shareholder distribution.
Commenting on the results, Greenwood stated “FY 2024 has been a year of significant progress. Our continued improvements in roll-out speed, power uptime and tenancy ratio expansion has supported mobile operators to deliver ever more reliable, expansive and sustainable mobile connectivity. Today, 151 million people are under the coverage footprint of our towers.”
As a result of increasing tenancy ratios, Helios Towers is looking to further drive operational efficiencies to manage rising loads and uptime resiliency, principally dirven by deploying alternative power sources such as battery and solar solutions, as well as grid connections where feasible.
