Delta Partners Corporate Finance Limited, a member of the Delta Partners Group, has today announced that it acted as a strategic and financial advisor to the first regional and integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company in Asia, edotco Group Sdn Bhd (“edotco”), on its 100% acquisition of Veon Ltd.’s (“Veon”) subsidiary Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (“PMCL”) tower business, Deodar Private Limited (“Deodar”). edotco is executing the transaction in partnership with Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited (“DH Corp”), a leading listed investment conglomerate in Pakistan.
edotco, established in 2012, provides end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector, such as tower leasing, co-locations, build-to-suit, energy, transmission and operations and maintenance. Currently, edotco’s Asian portfolio includes over 26,000 towers across its core markets of Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Myanmar.
The deal, which is edotco’s largest expansion move to date, solidifies its position as the leading independent tower company in Pakistan and increases its overall tower count to approximately 40,000 towers (32,000 owned and 8,000 under management) which makes it the eighth largest independent tower company and second largest multi-country tower operator globally.
The enterprise value of the transaction is $940 million, subject to adjustments, and will be funded with a combination of external local debt of $600 million and an equity injection of $174 million by edotco and $166 million by DH Corp for their 55% and 45% respective shareholding.
The announcement itself comes only months after edotco’s acquisition of Tanzanite Tower Private Limited (“TTPL”) (subsidiary of Tower Share (Private) Limited) in a transaction that gave TTPL an enterprise value of $90 million. Delta Partners Corporate Finance Limited acted as edotco’s sole strategic and financial advisor.
Fede Membrillera, Managing Partner, Delta Partners, who led the execution of the transaction, commented: “We are proud to have acted as a strategic and financial advisor to edotco on its expansion journey. edotco’s growth has been phenomenal and this transaction solidifies its positon as market leader in the region, diversifying even further the portfolio. The transaction was highly complex and involved managing a number of stakeholders across different geographies.”
Suresh Sidhu, CEO of edotco, said: “We are pleased to be able to consolidate our expansion into Pakistan with this acquisition. The acquisition of Deodar is a critical part of our growth strategy and ambition to position edotco as the leading independent telecommunications infrastructure services provider in Asia.”
