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Airtel Africa mulls IPO for mobile money unit after currency crashes

Annie Turner
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Airtel Africa mulls IPO for mobile money unit after currency crashes

Airtel Money is the fastest growing part of the group which saw its profits drop 99.6% in February due to currency devaluations

Airtel Africa is considering an initial public offering of its mobile money arm that could value it at more than $4 billion, according to Bloomberg [subscription needed].

The operator group is experiencing extreme turbulence. Last month it came very close to making a loss as its net profit plummeted by 99.6%. This was primarily down to Nigeria’s decision to unpeg the naira from the US dollar, sending the naira into freefall.

Airtel’s business in Nigeria posted a loss after tax of N137 billion (about €79 million) for the 2023 financial year, despite its service revenue increasing 22.4% to N2.5 trillion.

Until the naira was unhitched from the dollar last summer, Nigeria was Airtel Africa’s most profitable market.

Currency problems were added to by Malawi devaluing the Kwacha in November.

Fastest growing unit

The mobile money business is the fastest growing part of Airtel. In the nine months to the end of last December, its customer base grew by 19.5% to 37.5 million. Revenues grew even faster, by almost 32% in constant currency terms in the same period.

The report says the operator could float the unit this year and is already in discussions with potential advisors. It is apparently also looking at stock exchanges from London to mainland Europe, the UEA and beyond for the flotation.

Perhaps investor’s in the mobile money service are keen to salvage their investment: in 2021 from Mastercard to the tune of $100 million and $200 million from TPG.

Tele2 uses 5G connected drones to deliver food 

Simon Dux
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Tele2 uses 5G connected drones to deliver food 

Drones are becoming one of those killer 5G apps we were all promised a decade ago

Tele2 has teamed up with foodora and Aerit to launch food deliveries using IoT and 5G connected drones. The deliveries will be made wherever possible to the customers’ property or garden and lowered with a cable from the drone, with the first deliveries taking place already in the spring on Värmdö, outside Stockholm. 

The operator has been working with Nokia and AirForestry to use high-capacity, 6m-wide drones for forest thinning from the air. These are controlled by a 5G private wireless network and if the pilot is successful throughout this year, it will be deployed into commercial forestry operations. The drones are controlled from a portable shed with 5G antennas that are positioned to cover the area to be thinned. The mobile solution allows it to be easily set up where needed and where there is no public coverage or any other alternative technologies.   

Tele2’s 5G will support foodora Air’s fleet of electric drones that will provide the food delivery service from several restaurants on Värmdö, outside Stockholm. The operator will provide continuous connectivity for the drones based on 5G IoT. Drones require both short response times and the ability to send and receive large amounts of data to handle deliveries safely, supported by 5G. 

Aerit has developed advanced drones integrated into foodora’s technology platform to create an efficient delivery experience.  Deliveries will commence in May on Värmdö and food can be ordered through the foodora app. The goal is to expand to more areas in Sweden so that more locations can have access to the same service available in major cities. 

The delivery flights, conducted beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), provide on-demand access to goods and services for approved households within Aerit’s 100-square-kilometre coverage area. 

This marks a new era in how people receive deliveries, and we believe we can see more applications in other industries,” said Tele2 head of business affairs Stefan Trampus. “The partnership with foodora is a perfect example of how we can use our 5G connectivity and expertise to drive future delivery services in a simple, sustainable, and smart way, while providing customers with an extraordinary experience.” 

Greener option than alternatives 

The drones have a range of 21km and emit 2 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre, which can be compared to traditional gasoline or diesel-powered delivery vehicles that emit 143 and 110 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre, respectively. The maximum delivery range is 12km and the payload is 4kg. Aerit’s Nimbi drones also feature a proprietary winching system that allows for both package pick-up and drop-off without the need for supporting infrastructure. 

“Technology and connectivity have the potential to break many of the limitations that currently exist in rural areas, where access to various services and products has decreased in line with rapid urbanisation, added Trampus. 

“We are proud to be the first in Europe to launch real drone deliveries, and we are excited to have Tele2 and Aerit as partners on this exciting journey. Fast home deliveries are a democratic issue, in my opinion. Regardless of where you are in the country, it should be possible to quickly get what you need, such as medicines or groceries. It should not only be available to people who have chosen to settle in big cities,” said foodora operations director Daniel Gustafsson Raba. 

“We are thrilled to join forces with foodora and Tele2 to accelerate the adoption of drone delivery across Europe. Today’s announcement means our mission, to provide emission slashing access to goods and services by leveraging our cutting-edge drone courier networks, takes a leap into the future,” said Aerit CEO Alexander Perrien. “Drone delivery is here, and this partnership will provide the foundation for Aerit to scale at speed.” 

Telecom equipment revenues tanked in 2023 – Dell’Oro 

Simon Dux
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Telecom equipment revenues tanked in 2023 – Dell’Oro 

2024 is predicted to be less bad, while the contrast with the data centre equipment market is striking

Two recent reports by Dell’Oro demonstrate the diverging trajectories of the telecoms equipment and data centre equipment markets. The market analysts said that after five consecutive years of growth and stable trends in 1H23, the pendulum swung rapidly towards the negative in the second half of the year.

Their preliminary findings suggest that worldwide telecom equipment revenues across the six telecom programmes they track – Broadband Access, Microwave & Optical Transport, Mobile Core Network (MCN), Radio Access Network (RAN), and SP Router & Switch – declined 5% year-over-year (YoY) for the full year 2023, performing worse than expected.

This week Dell’Oro also revealed that the Data Centre Physical Infrastructure (DCPI) revenue growth maintained double-digit year-over-year (YoY) growth despite continuing to decelerate in 4Q 2023. This capped off a record year of 16 percent revenue growth. There is an irony there for telcos and telco equipment manufacturers (TEMs) which bailed from the data segment because they thought it was being commoditised.

On the TEM front, author and VP RAN and telecom Stefan Pongratz, points the finger at glacial 5G SA rollouts coupled with advanced 5G markets with higher 5G population causing steep declines in wireless-based investments. This capex deceleration was not confined to the RAN and MCN segments. Following a couple of years of robust PON investments, operators curtailed their home broadband capex as well. “This reduction was more than enough to offset positive developments with optical transport and SP routers,” he said.

The least surprising news was that North America subsided faster than expected. “Initial readings show that the aggregate telecom equipment market dropped by roughly a fifth in the North America region, underpinned by weak activity in both RAN and Broadband Access,” said Pongratz. On the bright side, regional dynamics were more favourable outside of the US. Our assessment is that worldwide revenues excluding North America advanced in 2023, as positive developments in the Asia Pacific region were mostly sufficient to offset weaker growth across Europe.

Huawei leading the pack

And one big winner from this switch to non-US revenue has been Huawei despite efforts by the US government to limit its addressable market and access to the latest silicon. Huawei still maintains its position as the global telecom equipment leader and Dell’Oro believes its lead widened in 2023, in part because its limited exposure to the North America region was a benefit in 2023 on a relative basis.

Other supplier rankings were mostly unchanged; however, vendor revenue shares shifted slightly in 2023. Still, the overall concentration has not changed – the top 7 suppliers accounted for around 80% of the overall market.

Pongratz said market conditions were expected to remain challenging in 2024, though the decline is projected to be less severe than in 2023. The analyst team is collectively forecasting global telecom equipment revenues to contract between 0 to -5% in 2024. “Risks are broadly balanced,” he said. “In addition to currency fluctuations, economic uncertainty, and inventory normalization, there are multiple regions/technology segments that are operating in a non-steady state.”

DC market booming even before AI impacts fully

In contrast to struggling TEMs, Dell’Oro research director Lucas Beran said that after covering the DCPI market for a decade, 2023 marked the highest year of revenue growth he’d observed. “This growth was primarily the result of vendors fulfilling pandemic induced backlogs delayed by supply chain constraints, with a marginal contribution from sales linked to AI workloads.” He pointed out that as DCs take 18-24 months to be built, given all the commitments to AI by, frankly everybody, we’re not even seeing that impact appearing until the second half of 2024

“In my nearly decade-long coverage of the DCPI market, 2023 marked the highest year of revenue growth I’ve observed. This growth was primarily the result of vendors fulfilling pandemic induced backlogs delayed by supply chain constraints, with a marginal contribution from sales linked to AI workloads,” said Lucas Beran, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “This is because building new data centre facilities generally takes 18 – 24 months, and new purpose-built facilities to support AI workloads are expected to start materializing in the second half of 2024.

“Evidence indicates that these deployments are nearing. Vertiv, the market share leader in data centre thermal management, secured its first quarter of notable liquid cooling deployments, which is correlated to higher TDP processors associated with accelerated computing,” he said. “This is only the beginning, as Vertiv plans to increase liquid cooling manufacturing capacity by 45 times in 2024.”

Demonstrating the emerging impact of AI on DCs, the bifurcation in hardware sales became more prominent in 4Q 2023, with product growth such as single-phase UPS, IT racks and rack power distribution notably slowing. Larger system sales, such as Three-phase UPS, Thermal Management and Facility Power Distribution grew at much faster rates.

BT’s MAUD adds bit-rate tech to boost streaming as demand soars

Annie Turner
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BT’s MAUD adds bit-rate tech to boost streaming as demand soars

Broadpeak’s multicast ABR technology should improve streaming quality and reliability, reduce content delivery costs and energy consumption

BT Group has teamed up with Broadpeak, the content delivery network (CDN) which provides video streaming solutions to content providers and pay-TV operators worldwide. BT will combine its own Multicast-Assisted Unicast Delivery (MAUD) with Broadpeak’s nanoCDN multicast adaptive bitrate (mABR).

Multicast magic

MAUD’s architecture takes mABR a step further by integrating it with content providers’ player applications so customers’ apps require no modification. The nanoCDN tech will be integrated into BT Group’s consumer smart hub routers so that individual streams can be grouped in the network core – multicast – before they are converted back to unicast at the edge for consumption by end-users’ applications on devices.

This approach means MAUD uses up to 50% less bandwidth during peak events, reducing energy consumption as fewer caches are needed. Simultaneously, more efficient delivery of live video also means broadcasters and video service providers give customers a better quality of experience.

The operator expects “a number of major broadcasters and content companies are expected to trial this breakthrough solution in 2024”. 

As seen on TV

BT announced MAUD in January, which it hailed as a breakthrough in TV technology which will be key to broadcasters being able to meet demand for live content.

Howard Watson, Chief Security and Networks Officer at BT Group, commented, “As more live events move online – or to online only – we are seeing a big increase in traffic. MAUD is a revolutionary development in how live video is delivered over the internet. It will improve video streaming experiences for viewers, delivering a more reliable, consistent picture and increases content delivery efficiency for broadcasters and video service providers.”

Jacques Le Mancq, CEO of Broadpeak, noted, “We are very excited to support BT Group with the launch of such an impressive live video streaming initiative. MAUD answers the critical requirements for enhanced video quality, simpler content delivery, and increased sustainability, making it a game changer for broadcasters and video service providers.”

Enhancing 5G business opportunities with automation and network slicing

Annie Turner and admin
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Enhancing 5G business opportunities with automation and network slicing

Partner content: How can automation help to meet the complexity, scalability, and agility requirements of dynamically orchestrated services?

The evolution of 5G offers operators and service providers significant revenue opportunities, particularly from new use cases for B2B and enterprise customers. Specifically, network slicing – which 5G Standalone (SA) makes commercially viable at scale – and private networking will support myriad B2B opportunities across multiple verticals. In fact, B2B revenues will be key to the success of 5G as a commercial service.

Slicing key to 5G SA B2B services

Network slicing is seen as key to unlocking the potential of 5G by providing multiple performance dimensions, with each slice optimised – in terms of capacity, xNF (Network Function) selection, and configuration – for separate use cases, such as low-latency, mission-critical autonomous vehicles or less demanding IoT applications (and everything in between). Slicing offers operators and service providers a palette on which they can deliver customised, differentiated services – on demand and on request.

That’s why, according to Rethink Research, the network slicing revenue opportunity for operators, enterprises, and their technology providers will grow from essentially nothing in 2022 to $23.6 billion by 2030. The Media & Entertainment sector currently leads the way, followed by Others (reflecting the broad diversity of use cases and applications), and Manufacturing.

However, while 5G brings significant opportunity, it also brings challenges. Concepts such as Software Defined Networking (SDN), Virtual Network Functions (VNF) and Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) add a whole new level of complexity over previous technology generations.

But it’s not just technological challenges that 5G brings. Competitive advantage in the 5G era will be dictated by the speed at which CSPs can design, create, launch, retire, provision, sell, assure, and commercialise innovative 5G offers. This requires substantial flexibility and agility. In turn, this demands the dynamic orchestration of network services throughout the lifecycle within a multi-vendor environment.

The only way that CSPs can match the complexity and performance requirements for dynamically orchestrated services and network slices, while achieving the flexibility and agility required from a strategic perspective, is through automation.

Handling complexity and agility

If we think about some of the verticals that CSPs and MNOs might serve in the 5G SA era, it quickly becomes clear that each vertical (and each application within each vertical) demands very different characteristics. For example, a smart port might have very different performance, capacity, and QoS requirements than a self-driving vehicle, an IoT estate, or an agricultural use case (to name just a few verticals).

Of course, this is where the strength of network slicing lies – providing tailored, dedicated resources to a single customer, application, or service, each with different requirements in terms of performance, availability, automation, flexibility, security, scalability, and so on. In turn each slice, or network service, will have different QoS, QoE, and KPI requirements.

Importantly, the customer does not care how the service is delivered. But what they do expect is speed, delivery, capacity, scalability, performance, optimised KPIs, robustness and resilience, and so on. When a customer requires a service, they expect to access it quickly, and expect it to provide the required performance and operational parameters. They also expect it to change to meet their own (and their customers) changing demands, without fuss and without human intervention. So how can providers achieve this?

Automation is imperative

Automation is the only option that enables service providers to instantiate, manage, orchestrate, and retire services and slices throughout the lifecycle accurately and at speed in a dynamic manner.

For example, IoT services offer a huge opportunity – according to Finances Online, there will be more than 25 billion connected IoT devices by 2030 (up from an estimated 14 billion today). CSPs and telcos are in a unique position to deliver new IoT services. But, the IoT environment is a complex web of interconnected devices.

Automation not only helps service providers to access the lucrative IoT market, but it is also imperative for orchestrating services throughout the lifecycle. Furthermore, it enables CSPs to add new services incrementally, or to adapt existing services according to changes in demand. In a further case, automation could help to integrate different IoT estates dynamically and with zero-touch – for example, as the result of IoT service provider M&A.

An alternative scenario might relate to the emerging B2B2X business model, whereby B2B services are delivered to any end user (the ‘X’), which could be customers, retailers, partners, suppliers, or any other entities, in any vertical.

This mix of ‘B’s adds value and enhances the offer to the customer base. So, a CSP might reach out to another service or content provider to build new business relationships and partnerships. In this case, automation could dynamically integrate partner offers into a broader service package – according to demand or for premium customers, for example – without disrupting the existing set.

Automation platform

Put simply, to monetise 5G requires automation throughout the technology stack to ensure that customer KPIs are met, to meet changing customer demands, and to enable service providers to offer a rich set of innovative, differentiated services, across multiple verticals within a multi-vendor environment.

We Are CORTEX offers a platform for automation of operational processes. Our platform provides the reusable tools and capabilities to automate anything – from orchestration to process management. In turn, it gives CSPs the flexibility and agility to build, manage, and use their own library of process fragments (reusable automation/function chains) to reduce time-to-market, improve efficiency, gain automation independence, and meet the demands of dynamic network slicing.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL WHITEPAPER TO DISCOVER MORE

We Are CORTEX are global leaders in advanced automation and orchestration. Established in 1999, and focused exclusively on the telecommunications sector, the experience, and unrivalled, purpose built capabilities make CORTEX the choice for some of the worlds largest operators. CORTEX help CSPs automate at scale, achieving strategic automation objectives, providing a commercial edge in a highly competitive world. 

UK altnets ask government for help as attacks on fibre infra rise

Annie Turner
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UK altnets ask government for help as attacks on fibre infra rise

New survey shows the cost of disruption to business’ connectivity is soaring

A group of alternative fibre network providers (altnets) has asked Michele Donelan, the UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), for measures to counter attacks on fibre infrastructure.

The group, led by Ogi and Vorboss, has written to the DSIT, asking for greater police involvement and to consider stiffer sentences for those caught maliciously damaging network infrastructure. It is signed by execs from altnets plus the Chair Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA).

Soaring cost of disruption

According to the group, there has been a series attacks on fibre infrastructure around the country which disrupt public services and businesses as well as individuals’ daily lives, cutting off entire streets or communities or streets.

The altnets are of the opinion that the police should give greater priority to preventing attacks and apprehending those responsible, given the impact they have.

Beaming, an ISP commissioned a survey which found businesses lost over 50 million hours and £3.7 billion (up from £742 million in 2018. This is because that although the amount of time businesses lose due connectivity failures has fallen by 20% helped by the shift to full-fibre infrastructure, their reliance on digital infrastructure means the cost of disruptions to it has soared by 400%

Censuswide carried out the survey of 504 UK-based businesses leaders in January.

Types of attack

Vorboss, which provides fiber connections of up to 100Gbps for businesses in London, told The Register that attacks vary from cutting through cable in underground ducts to pouring petrol into access chambers and setting them alight.

It seems that the motive varies from vandalism, to a grudge against a specific provider or anti-5G activism rather than acts of sabotage by rival providers.

Examples of attacks include extensive damage by vandals to part of Netomnia’s new fibre network in Liverpool, although few subscribers suffered as a result. The altnet is investing £39 million in the area.

In January Ogi’s infrastructure at Pembroke Dock was attacked. Engineers had to rebuild parts of the new network covering 600m at several sites in the town, ISP Review reported.

Fibre and FWA are two fastest growing technologies in the OECD 

Simon Dux
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Fibre and FWA are two fastest growing technologies in the OECD 

OECD confirms fibre and fixed wireless are now dominating rollouts which will make the coming overbuild crunch potentially more painful for some service providers

The OECD’s latest broadband numbers show that fibre and fixed wireless access (FWA) have seen the strongest growth in fixed broadband technologies in three years. Given that the organisation’s numbers only cover up to the end of June 23, it reveals how quickly access technologies are changing and while some countries are busy overbuilding, others are being left behind in the rush.

Fibre subscriptions have increased by 56% between June 2020 to June 2023, and FWA subscriptions have increased by 64%. The United States (252%), Estonia (153%), Norway (139%) and Spain (118%) led this FWA growth. At the same time, DSL has declined 24%, now only representing 22% of total broadband connections.

Fibre, which has been the dominant technology since 2021, amounts to 41% of total fixed broadband subscriptions in June 2023. FWA still represents a more modest share of 3.7% of total fixed broadband subscriptions. Cable accounts for 30.5% of overall connections while satellite, which grew 11% over the last three years, still only represents 0.7% of fixed broadband subscribers. 

Fibre penetration strong 

Nine OECD countries have more than 70% of fibre connections over total broadband, with Korea, Japan, Iceland, Spain leading the way with the highest fibre penetration rates of 89%, 86%, 85% and 84%, respectively. The highest fibre growth rates are in Europe, with Austria and Belgium having growth rates of 75% and 73% over the last year, closely followed by Mexico with a growth in fibre of 68%. Two other Latin American countries are in the top seven: Costa Rica and Colombia with fibre growth rates of 42% and 34%, respectively. 

Meanwhile, mobile data usage per subscription grew substantially by 28% in one year passing from 10.GB to 13 GB per subscription per month in OECD countries. The amount of data consumed in countries vary greatly from 6GB to 46GB, with Latvia being the OECD leader.  

Mobile doing well as well  

Despite an already very high mobile broadband penetration in the OECD area, overall mobile subscriptions continued to grow by 4.6% over the last year, which totalled 1.8 billion as of June 2023, up from 1.74 billion a year earlier. Mobile broadband penetration is highest in Japan, Estonia, the United States and Finland, with subscriptions per 100 inhabitants at 200%, 192%, 183% and 161%, respectively. The share of 5G in total mobile broadband subscriptions is 23% on average for the OECD countries that provided this data.  

Machine-to-machine (M2M) SIM cards grew 14% increase in one year. The two leading countries are Sweden with 238 M2M SIM cards per 100 inhabitants and Iceland (203), followed by Austria (179), the Netherlands (93) and Norway (76). Both Sweden and Iceland issue M2M SIM cards for international use. 

IHS Towers still suffering Nigerian Naira hangover 

Simon Dux
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IHS Towers still suffering Nigerian Naira hangover 

Q4 and FY2023 results heavily impacted by the currency devaluation and company signalled a strategic review is on the cards 

Independent global towerco IHS Towers saw Q4 revenues fall 3.1% to $509.8 million, despite solid organic growth, as the towerco struggled to digest the 75.3% devaluation of the Nigerian Naira, which created a $271.8 million year-on-year foreign exchange headwind.  

IHS Towers chairman and CEO Sam Darwish said the Nigerian currency problems will continue – which is a problem for the company given Nigeria represented 63% of revenue in 4Q23. He said the Naira continues to devalue at levels that are offsetting much of any strong secular trends. “From January to December 2023, the Naira suffered a 98% unfavourable movement, and from January 2024 to date, we have seen a further 75% unfavourable movement,” he said.  

“We expect the additional devaluation that began in January to further impact our results in 2024. Our guidance for 2024 assumes an average rate of NGN 1,610, whereas the average rate in 2023 was NGN 638, and that the devaluation in the Naira will have a negative $535 million impact on revenue year-on-year even after adjusting for the impact of FX resets,” he added.  

Due to the NGN devaluation, revenue and segment adjusted EBITDA were negatively impacted by $427.5 million and $264.7 million, respectively, in the second half year of 2023 when compared to the USD/NGN rate on 1 June, 2023. This negative impact on revenue and segment adjusted EBITDA was partially offset by $191.4 million in contract resets.   

Adjusted EBITDA margin for the fourth quarter of 2023 was 53.8% (fourth quarter of 2022: 51.8%). The increase in Adjusted EBITDA partially reflects the decrease in cost of sales of $26.9 million primarily due to the $25.7 million decrease in diesel costs. The Q4 loss was $456.8 million compared to a loss of $268.9 million YoY. 

Evaluating “strategic alternatives” 

Darwish said ignoring Nigeria, the company had a “strong quarter of performance across our key metrics with revenue, adjusted EBITDA and ALFCF in line or ahead of our expectations”. He added growth in lease amendments, new tenants, new sites or build-to-suits and targeted fibre rollout all helped the business, plus the recent deal with Airtel in Nigeria, which includes a commitment to add 3,950 new tenancies over the next five years.  

However, Nigeria can’t be ignored so the company is planning “a more balanced approach to growth and cash generation”. Darwish said “We expect the significant reduction in capex that started in the second half of 2023 will continue in 2024, along with a continued focus on improving operating efficiencies through productivity enhancements and cost reductions.” 

He added he thought the company’s was undervalued given Africa’s “perceived place in the global markets” and that the long-term growth prospects of the Latin American business were also strong. “We own and operate 40K towers across 11 markets covering approximately 800 million people…Notwithstanding our strengths, we have to consider ways of unlocking value for our shareholders,” he said.  

He added: “We are working with our advisors, including JP Morgan, to evaluate strategic alternatives for the business across our portfolio and our capital allocation priorities. This exercise is intended to generate the best value for investors. We will provide an update on this as appropriate.” 

Regional highlights 

Revenue for IHS’s Nigeria segment decreased by $34.6 million, or 9.7%, to $320.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to $355.3 million YoY. Organic revenue increased by $232.8 million, or 65.5%. Tenants decreased by 201, including 942 churned although most of these were from a key customer leaving in Q1 and IHS was not recognising revenue for them. Churn partially offset by 504 from colocation and 237 from new sites, while lease amendments increased by 3,781. 

In sub-Saharan Africa, revenue increased by $6.5 million, or 5.6%, to $124 million in Q4, compared to $117.5 million YoY. Tenants increased by 557, including 330 from colocation and 226 from new sites, while Lease Amendments increased by 1,030. 

In Latam revenue increased by $10.4 million, or 23.8%, to $54.3 million for Q4, compared to $43.9 million YoY. Tenants increased by 648, including 828 from new sites and 206 from colocation, partially offset by 386 churned, while lease amendments increased by 118. 

MENA revenue increased by $1.3 million, or 13.3%, to $10.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2023. Tenants increased by 150, including 109 from the closing of the sixth stage of the Kuwait acquisition in the third quarter of 2023 and 47 from new sites. 

Full year results 

During the twelve months ended 31 December 2023, revenue was $2.13 billion, compared to $1.96 billion YoY. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.13 billion for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, compared to $1.03 billion YoY. Full year adjusted EBITDA margin was 53.3% (versus 52.6% YoY). The loss for the period was $1.99 billion compared to a loss of $469.0 million YoY. Looking ahead, IHS Holding introduced its 2024 guidance, expecting revenue between $1.7 billion and $1.73 billion, which is below the analyst consensus of $1.98 billion. 

B2B service delivery automation | White paper by We Are CORTEX

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B2B service delivery automation | White paper by We Are CORTEX

SPIE Group acquires fibre and mobile firm ICG Group from H.I.G. Capital  

Simon Dux
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SPIE Group acquires fibre and mobile firm ICG Group from H.I.G. Capital  

SPIE’s position in Germany’s fibre and mobile infrastructure markets just got a significant boost

Paris-listed energy and communications company SPIE Group has acquired a 92% stake in investment company H.I.G. Capital’s German fibre portfolio company ICG Group for an undisclosed sum. With this acquisition SPIE will enter the market for 5G mobile telecommunications infrastructure and significantly strengthen its position in the fibre networks, a crucial move as Germany is still in the early stages for the rollout of fibre across the country and is lagging behind the other European countries in that field. 

Headquartered in Leonberg near Stuttgart, ICG Group is a leading turnkey service provider for telecommunication infrastructure (for both fibre and 5G Mobile telecommunications networks). The Group was initially launched in 2021, with H.I.G.’s platform investment in Infratech, which builds complex FTTx networks on behalf of public and private German network operators. The company subsequently acquired comcross, a German service provider for mobile telecommunication infrastructure. It generated a revenue of around €230 million in 2023 with margins north of 10%, in line with the sector. 

The mobile communication segment was further developed through ICG’s bolt-on investments in telecommunication solutions providers Schwan and TripleA as well as telecommunication network planner DPE. Today, ICG has more than 700 employees in 16 locations throughout Germany, mainly, as well as in the Netherlands, and Croatia. The company has built more than 15,000 mobile communications sites, deployed more than 15,000 kilometres of fibre-optic lines, and connected more than 100,000 households to fibre-optic networks (“homes passed”). ICG’s revenue quadrupled during H.I.G.’s ownership.  

The remaining 8% shareholding will be retained by the current management team who will remain in place and will contribute to pursue the business development. 

What the execs said 

“The acquisition of ICG Group enables SPIE to further strengthen its position as a leading player in the deployment of fibre networks and mobile telecommunication infrastructure in Germany, which are very strategic and rapidly growing markets,” said SPIE chairman and CEO Gauthier Louette (above). “With its high growth perspectives and very strong level of profitability, we are convinced that the combination of ICG Group with SPIE will be highly value creative.” 

 “The acquisition of ICG Group will further reinforce our existing City networks & grids segment and we are delighted to welcome the management and its highly skilled collaborators to further develop the business,” added SPIE Deutschland & Zentraleuropa CEO Markus Holzke.  

“We are very pleased to have assembled the ICG Group, uniquely offering customers a single point of contact for the entire value chain of digital infrastructure services,” said H.I.G managing director Holger Kleingarn. Our engagement in ICG underlines H.I.G.’s expertise in identifying strong platforms in key future industries and sustainably expanding them via organic growth and selected acquisitions.  

“We have established ICG Group as the leading enabler of next-generation infrastructures and turnkey network solutions in Germany and beyond,” he said. “We thank the management team of Vladimir Suznjevic and Gregor Klassen for the highly trustful and successful partnership and wish them continued success for the next phase of ICG Group’s development.” 

“Technologies such as Industry 4.0, autonomous driving, and artificial intelligence require a significant expansion of digital infrastructure in Germany and Europe,” said ICG Group mobile communication business managing director Vladimir Suznjevic. In addition, while the 5G mobile communication standard is currently being rolled out, 6G is already in development.” 

He added: “In order to best drive the European digitisation, a technical integration of mobile communications and fibre-optic infrastructure is key. At ICG, with the support of H.I.G. and now SPIE, we are ideally positioned to continue meeting this requirement for the benefit of our trusted customers.” 

Infratech fibre-optic managing director Gregor Klassen said “Germany will catch up to the industrialised countries in fibre optic rollout over the next decade, resulting in an ongoing high demand for experienced and reliable service providers in the areas of fibre optic planning, civil engineering, and installation.” 

He added: “We have trusted relationships with our public-sector and corporate clients, allowing us to implement large turnkey networks for them. We thank H.I.G. for the strong support over the past years.” 

SPIE expects to close the transaction in Q2 2024, subject to customary closing conditions among which antitrust approval. 

 

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