Eastcastle Infrastructure was established in 2020 by Peter Lewis, the former Group CFO and Pankaj Kulshrestha, the former Group COO of Eaton Towers (Founders), to pursue new build-to-suit telecom tower and related infrastructure opportunities initially in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo for their core existing MNO relationships.
The Founders experience in building, championing and retaining locally resourced African telecom related businesses extends to over twelve African countries and has resulted in the creation of thousands of jobs for local nationals.
The Eastcastle Infrastructure team has successfully structured and completed fifteen African telecoms tower acquisitions and disposals. The most recent being the purchase of 275 sites in the DRC from Orange DRC in 2022.
KEY MILESTONES
- Selecting and finalising a consortium of experienced African Tower Investors (AIIM, Adenia and IFC) in 2020.
- Obtaining relevant licenses and establishing local operations in DRC, Nigeria and Ivory Coast in 2020.
- First build to suit orders received from Orange in April 2021 and Airtel in October 2021 in DRC.
- First build to suit orders received from Airtel in Nigeria in February 2022.
- Agreement signed for the acquisition of 275 towers from Orange DRC, with a matching number of new builds in September 2022.
- Decision taken to exit Ivory Coast market mid 2022.
- USD 130 million equity invested by October 2022.
- Launch of ISO certification project and GHG Net Zero targets Spring 2023.
- USD94 million debt financing secured for DRC from The Standard Bank of South Africa, IFC and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund June 2023. (https://pressroom.ifc.org/all/pages/PressDetail.aspx?ID=27628)
