CompanyGraph
Helios Towers plc
HTWS · United Kingdom
Shares diesel-backed tower infrastructure across nine African markets so mobile operators can reach coverage thresholds their individual economics cannot support.
Helios Towers commits to 99.99% uptime across nine African markets, and because national grids cannot meet that threshold, each tower must carry its own diesel generation and fuel supply chain — making fuel delivery reliability the single point of failure through which grid instability translates directly into contract breaches before any other lever can respond. That same power infrastructure, once sized and fuelled, reduces the cost of adding a second or third operator tenant to near zero, so the business is economical only when tenancy density is spread across a portfolio of towers rather than any single site. Long-term inflation-linked lease contracts anchor operators to existing sites through both contractual terms and the physical integration of their equipment, which means the friction that protects the portfolio from competitive displacement is the same friction that slows any operator from responding when political instability, currency devaluation against USD-denominated obligations, or worsening grid conditions raise the cost of holding that portfolio together. Because the entire operational base is concentrated within Africa, a regulatory or enforcement failure across even a subset of the nine jurisdictions at the same time would compress portfolio-level tenancy density below the threshold at which diesel-backed shared infrastructure remains economical, with no geographic position outside the continent to absorb the loss.
How does this company make money?
Monthly co-location lease payments from mobile network operators flow in on long-term contracts that include inflation escalation clauses, meaning payments rise with inflation over the contract term. Additional income comes from power management services, site maintenance, and build-to-suit tower construction projects where the company builds new towers to order for operators expanding their coverage.
What makes this company hard to replace?
Long-term inflation-linked lease contracts with mobile network operators spanning multiple years anchor operators to existing sites. Physical integration of each operator's equipment into tower infrastructure means migration to a competing tower requires technical dismantling and reinstallation. Regulatory approval processes for new tower construction in each market create time barriers that slow any competitive alternative from reaching deployment.
What limits this company?
Diesel fuel delivery reliability to remote sites is the throughput bottleneck: grid instability means generator runtime cannot be deferred, so a broken fuel supply chain at any cluster of sites directly breaches uptime commitments to all co-located operators on those towers before any commercial or financial lever can respond.
What does this company depend on?
The structure depends on diesel fuel supply contracts across African markets; local government tower construction permits in Tanzania, DRC, Ghana, and Senegal; power grid connections from national utilities; long-term lease agreements with mobile network operators including MTN and Vodacom; and security services to protect remote tower sites.
Who depends on this company?
Mobile network operators including MTN and Vodacom would lose network coverage across rural African markets if towers went offline. Over 200 million mobile subscribers would lose cellular connectivity in regions where no alternative tower infrastructure exists. Government digital inclusion initiatives in these markets depend on shared tower economics to make network expansion financially viable.
How does this company scale?
Adding an additional mobile operator tenant to an existing tower requires minimal incremental infrastructure investment, so co-location capacity replicates cheaply once a tower is in place. What resists scaling is the site-by-site acquisition of land rights, construction permits, and grid connections across nine different African regulatory jurisdictions, each with its own approval process and timeline.
What external forces can significantly affect this company?
Currency devaluation in African markets creates a mismatch against USD-denominated equipment costs and debt obligations. Political instability in DRC and similar markets threatens the physical security and operational continuity of remote tower sites. Climate change is intensifying power grid instability across sub-Saharan Africa, which increases the hours generators must run and raises the associated fuel costs.
Where is this company structurally vulnerable?
Adverse policy shifts or contract-enforcement failures across even a subset of those nine jurisdictions at the same time would impair the portfolio-level tenancy density that makes diesel-backed shared infrastructure economical, and because the entire operational base is concentrated within Africa, there is no geographic position outside the continent to absorb that loss.