IHS Towers has completed its exit from Latin America. The company sold its remaining tower operations in Brazil and Colombia to Macquarie Asset Management. This clears one of the last major hurdles standing between IHS and its planned takeover by MTN Group.
IHS Mauritius BR Limited, a subsidiary of IHS Holding Limited, carried out the transaction. It closed on August 7, 2026, months after the sale agreement was first announced in February. The deal covers roughly 9,000 tower sites across the two countries. As a result, it marks the final chapter of a Latin American venture that once formed a key part of IHS’s international footprint.
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With the sale done, IHS now operates only in Africa. The company runs more than 28,000 towers across Nigeria, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Zambia. At its peak, IHS managed close to 40,000 towers across eleven countries spanning Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. So this retreat is a major narrowing of the company’s geographic ambitions.
MTN shared its reaction with shareholders, note holders and the media, including TechCabal. According to the company, the completed sale “aligns with the intention by MTN to acquire only IHS’s African assets as part of the transaction.” In other words, the Latin American divestment was central to getting the broader MTN deal over the line. By selling off the non African assets first, IHS simplified the structure of the takeover. This also brought the deal more in line with what MTN wants: a tower business rooted firmly in Africa, where MTN already operates.
The Latin American exit did not happen in one move. IHS first sold its 51 percent stake in the Brazilian fibre venture I Systems to TIM S.A., the Brazilian unit of Telecom Italia. That deal was valued at around 453 million dollars. Then came the larger tower sale to Macquarie, worth approximately 952 million dollars. Together, these two transactions let IHS fully unwind its presence in the region ahead of the MTN deal closing.
JP Morgan advised IHS on the Latin American sale. Macquarie Asset Management, the buyer, manages close to 477 billion dollars in assets globally. That gives a sense of the scale of the firm now taking over the Brazilian and Colombian tower portfolios.
For MTN, the completed divestment removes a layer of complexity. The South African telecom giant agreed in February to acquire the roughly 75 percent stake in IHS it does not already own. The offer values each share at 8.50 dollars in cash, putting an enterprise value of about 6.2 billion dollars on the company. If the acquisition goes through as planned, IHS will be taken private. It will also be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and folded into MTN as a wholly owned subsidiary. This would bring tower infrastructure that MTN has long leased back under its direct ownership.
The deal still needs regulatory approval before it can close. However, IHS shareholders have already given their backing, satisfying one of the key conditions attached to the transaction. For a company that started 25 years ago with a single tower, the pending sale to MTN would close out a long chapter as an independent, Africa focused infrastructure business. It would also open a new one as part of one of the continent’s biggest telecom operators.
