Veon subsidiary Banglalink said on Wednesday it has completed the sale of part of its tower portfolio in Bangladesh to Summit Towers for BDT11 billion (US$100 million).
Under the deal, first revealed in November, Summit Towers now owns 2,012 Banglalink towers. Bangalink will continue to use the towers for the next 12 years under a master tower agreement with Summit, with an option to extend the lease later.
Banglalink CEO Erik Aas said the deal will not only help the telco fulfil its financial commitments, but also allow it to save on opex and manage its infrastructure resources more efficiently.
“This will enable us to focus more on our services and digital innovation such as Toffee and MyBL,” he said, referring to Bangalink’s digital entertainment service and customer service app, respectively.
As we previously reported, the deal also serves Veon’s “asset light” strategy to shed infrastructure across its telco subsidiaries. To that end, Veon said on Wednesday it will also “evaluate and pursue collaborative opportunities related to Banglalink's remaining tower portfolio.”
Meanwhile, the deal also helps Summit Towers’ parent company, Bangladesh infrastructure service provider Summit Communications Group, fatten its portfolio of 4,500 towers in Bangladesh.
“This, coupled with a fibre optic network spanning over 55,000 km and the upcoming submarine cable, will position Summit Communications Group as the country's primary end-to-end digital infrastructure provider,” said Muhammad Farid Khan, chairman of Summit Communications and Summit Towers.
The submarine cable in question is a private international cable being built by a contortium comprising Summit Communications, CdNet Communications and Metacore Subcom to connect Bangladesh with Singapore.
