IHS Holding Limited Reports Third Quarter 2024 Financial Results

CONSOLIDATED HIGHLIGHTS – THIRD QUARTER 2024

• Revenue of $420.3 million declined 3.5% compared to the second quarter of 2024 with continued growth in revenue from Colocation, Lease Amendments and New Sites partially offsetting the initial impact of the new financial terms in the renewed and extended contracts with MTN Nigeria signed during this quarter. Revenue decreased by 10.0% (or increased by 49.0% organically) year-on-year, with foreign exchange (“FX”) resets and escalations, captured within organic growth, helping to mitigate the impact of the 52.0% devaluation of the Nigerian Naira (“NGN”)
• Adjusted EBITDA of $246.0 million (58.5% Adjusted EBITDA Margin) increased 3.3% year-on-year, reflecting continued cost control
• Loss for the period was $205.7 million of which $236.0 million relates to unrealized FX losses
• Cash from operations was $182.4 million
• Adjusted Levered Free Cash Flow (“ALFCF”) was $87.1 million
• Total Capex was $66.5 million
• Reiterating 2024 guidance for Revenue of $1,670-1,700 million, Adjusted EBITDA of $900-920 million, ALFCF guidance of $250-270 million, with net leverage ratio target remaining 3.0x-4.0x. Reducing Capital expenditure (“Total Capex”) guidance to $270-300 million (from $330-370 million) driven by further capex savings

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IHS Holding Limited (NYSE: IHS) (“IHS Towers” or the “Company”), one of the largest independent owners, operators, and developers of shared communications infrastructure in the world by tower count, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024.

Sam Darwish, IHS Towers Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We’re reporting another solid performance across our key metrics in the third quarter, driven by healthy secular demand and the quality of our contract structures. This led to a robust Revenue performance despite significant FX headwinds, and the initial impact of the new financial terms in the renewed and extended contracts with MTN Nigeria signed during the quarter. Our strong third quarter Adjusted EBITDA, reaching an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 58.5%, highlights the resilience of our financial model and our continued financial discipline. We are also pleased with our ALFCF generation during the third quarter, driven by ongoing capex optimization, demonstrating our focus on increased cash generation. Based on our year to date capital allocation decisions, and our expectation of making further capex savings, we are revising our full year 2024 capex guidance range down to $270 million - $300 million. Given our performance year to date we also remain confident on achieving our current 2024 Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and ALFCF guidance, and are trending towards the upper end of our existing ranges. Our guidance reflects updated currency assumptions, which resulted in a positive impact on our Nigeria revenues, partially offset by a negative impact on our Brazil, Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon revenues.

We’ve made further significant commercial progress during 2024 including within this third quarter, having recently renewed and extended all our MTN tower MLAs and extended our Airtel Nigeria MLA. These renewed or extended contracts with Key Customers cover approximately 72% of our Revenue. We have lengthened our average Tenant term to 8.1 years, increased our Contracted Revenues to $12.3 billion, and ensured that we have no material renewals with our largest customer, MTN, until the end of 2032. During the third quarter specifically, we reached the significant commercial milestone of renewing and extending all our tower contracts with MTN Nigeria through 2032, covering nearly 13,500 tenancies and approximately 23,800 Lease Amendments, including 1,430 of the approximately 2,500 tenancies that were due to expire in 2024 and 2025, but will now remain with IHS Nigeria. This agreement draws a line under a series of customer renewals.

We’ve also made significant progress on the balance sheet strategy as we have extended our maturity profile and shifted more of our debt into local currency, through our new approximately $439 million dual-tranche term loan, entered into recently in October 2024, proceeds of which were used to refinance our existing $430 million term loan that was due to mature in October 2025.

In Nigeria, we have seen reduced volatility of the Naira during the quarter compared to earlier in the year, although devaluation against the USD still remains. Importantly, we continue to see USD availability, allowing us to source and upstream U.S. dollars to Group, with $155 million upstreamed year to date as of November 8, 2024. The average FX rate for the U.S. dollar to the Naira was 1,601 during the third quarter, compared to an average FX rate of 1,392 during 2Q24, equating to a $36 million revenue headwind quarter-on-quarter. This, compared to a more sizeable devaluation year-on-year, with the average rate for the U.S. dollar to the Naira of 768 a year ago, leading to a $265 million revenue headwind year-on-year. Our FX resets, however, helped to ensure our reported revenues only declined 10% year-on year, and an Adjusted EBITDA which grew 3% over the same period.

As already highlighted, during the quarter we have continued to deliver on numerous elements of our strategic review. Our third quarter performance shows continued progress towards our goal of increasing Adjusted EBITDA and substantially reducing our capex to increase cash flow generation. The MTN Nigeria contract renewal & extension finalizes the larger MLA renewals work. Our balance sheet continues to improve with extended maturity and more local currency debt. In terms of assets review, we continue to examine our portfolio of markets and reiterate our target to raise proceeds of $500 million to $1 billion by May 2025. Finally, regarding capital allocation, we continue to expect that proceeds from those initiatives will be used primarily to pay down our debt; however, we will also consider deploying excess proceeds through share buybacks and / or introducing a dividend policy. To be clear, these initial targets do not rule out further initiatives to increase shareholder value, which we continue to assess in parallel.”

Full Year 2024 Outlook Guidance

The following full year 2024 guidance is based on a number of assumptions that management believes to be reasonable and reflects the Company’s expectations as of November 12, 2024. Actual results may differ materially from these estimates as a result of various factors, and the Company refers you to the cautionary language regarding “forward-looking” statements included in this press release when considering this information. The Company’s revised outlook includes the impact from the renewal and extension of all tower contracts with MTN Nigeria.

The Company’s outlook is based on the following assumptions:

• Organic revenue Y/Y growth of approximately 48% (at the mid-point)
• Average foreign currency exchange rates to 1.00 U.S. Dollar for January 1, 2024, through December 31, 2024, for key currencies: (a) 1,500 Nigerian Naira; (b) 5.30 Brazilian Real (c) 0.92 Euros (d) 18.50 South African Rand
• Project Green capex of approximately $10.0 million
• Build-to-suit of ~850 sites of which ~600 sites in Brazil
• Net leverage ratio target of 3.0x-4.0x

Impact of Nigerian Naira devaluation

In mid-June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria implemented steps to unify the Nigerian foreign exchange market by replacing the old regime of multiple exchange rate segments into a single Investors and Exporters (“I&E”) window within which foreign exchange transactions would be determined by market forces and which was subsequently renamed NAFEM (Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Rate Fixing Market) in October 2023. The Group uses the USD/NGN rate published by Bloomberg for Group reporting purposes.

As a result of the steps taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Naira devalued between the period immediately prior to the announcement and the month end rate as of June 30, 2023. The Naira continued to devalue in the second half of 2023 and in January 2024, there was a further significant devaluation. During the second and third quarters of 2024, the Naira has continued to devalue but at a significantly slower rate as compared to the first quarter of 2024.

The table below summarizes the closing and average rates per period and related movements.

Due to the Naira devaluation, Revenue and segment Adjusted EBITDA were negatively impacted by $264.7 million and $172.4 million, respectively, in the third quarter of 2024, based on the average rate used in that quarter compared to the third quarter of 2023 average rate. At the same time, there were contract resets that partially offset the negative foreign exchange impact on Revenue and segment Adjusted EBITDA. In addition, the Naira devaluation resulted in an impact on finance costs, specifically related to net unrealized foreign exchange losses on financing of $232.1 million in our Nigeria segment in the third quarter of 2024. This is due to the USD denominated internal shareholder loans from Group entities to Nigeria and USD denominated third party debt. As the functional currency of the Nigeria businesses is NGN, these USD balances have been revalued in NGN using the rate as of September 30, 2024, resulting in an increase in unrealized loss on foreign exchange.

Results for the three months ended September 30, 2024 versus 2023

Revenue

Revenue for the three month period ended September 30, 2024 (“third quarter”) of $420.3 million declined 10.0% year-on-year. Organic revenue⁽¹⁾ increased by $229.0 million year-on-year during the third quarter, or 49.0%, driven primarily by foreign exchange resets and escalations in addition to continued growth in Tenants, Lease Amendments and New Sites. This growth was partially offset by the initial impact of the new financial terms in the renewed and extended contracts with MTN Nigeria, signed during the third quarter. Aggregate inorganic revenue growth was $0.1 million, which primarily related to the sixth stage of the Kuwait Acquisition. The increase in organic revenue was more than offset by the non-core impact of negative movements in foreign exchange rates of $275.9 million, or 59.1%, of which $264.7 million was due to the devaluation of the NGN.

Refer to the revenue component of the segment results section of this discussion and analysis for further details.

For the third quarter, the net increase in Towers was 911 year-on-year, resulting in total Towers of 40,650 at the end of the period, and primarily resulted from the addition of 1,346 New Sites (including 210 reintegrated towers in 3Q24 from our smallest Key Customer in Nigeria), partially offset by 350 Churned, 59 net divestiture from Latam and 26 decommissioned. We added 1,119 net new Tenants year-on-year (including 529 Churned Tenants in 3Q24 from our smallest Key Customer in Nigeria on which we were not recognizing revenue), resulting in total Tenants of 60,315 and a Colocation Rate of 1.48x at the end of the third quarter. Year-on-year, we added 4,135 Lease Amendments, driven primarily by 5G and fiber upgrades, resulting in total Lease Amendments of 39,389 at the end of the third quarter.

(1) Refer to “Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for the definition of organic revenue and additional information.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $246.0 million, reaching an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 58.5%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 3.3% year-on-year in the third quarter reflecting the decrease in revenue discussed above, more than offset by a decrease in cost of sales. The reduction in cost of sales was primarily driven by a decrease in regulatory fees of $12.1 million, primarily relating to a review of the current and historical license obligations in the SSA segment, and a decrease in tower repairs and maintenance costs, power generation costs, security services costs, and staff costs of $7.4 million, $5.5 million, $4.4 million, and $1.5 million respectively. The $11.1 million reduction in other cost of sales primarily relates to FX losses on goods in transit in Nigeria during the third quarter of 2023.

Loss for the period

Loss for the period in the third quarter of 2024 was $205.7 million, compared to a loss of $268.8 million for the third quarter of 2023. This equates to a reduction of loss of $63.1 million year-on-year, which was primarily due to a reduction in impairment of property, plant and equipment, intangible assets excluding goodwill and related prepaid land rent of $99.3 million primarily driven by power equipment assets in our SSA segment being classified as assets held for sale and remeasured at fair value less cost to sell in the third quarter of 2023, coupled with an increase in the net gain on the fair value of embedded options of $24.3 million which is driven by the increase in the market value of the Existing 2027 Senior Notes which increased the value of the embedded call options within these notes. This was partially offset by higher finance costs of $79.2 million driven by an increase in the unrealized net foreign exchange losses arising from financing as a result of the devaluation of the NGN, as well as a decrease in revenue as discussed above.

Cash from operations

Cash from operations for the third quarter of 2024 was $182.4 million, compared to $229.9 million for the third quarter of 2023. The decrease reflects an increased outflow in working capital of $50.6 million (inclusive of a withholding tax receivable increase of $20.2 million), partially offset by an increase in operating income of $3.1 million.

ALFCF

ALFCF for the third quarter of 2024 was $87.1 million, compared to $85.8 million for the third quarter of 2023. The increase in ALFCF was primarily due to the increase in Adjusted EBITDA of $7.9 million and reduction in revenue withholding tax of $3.0 million, partially offset by an increase in net interest paid of $8.6 million.

SEGMENT RESULTS

Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA by segment

Revenue and segment Adjusted EBITDA, our key profitability measures used to assess the performance of our reportable segments, were as follows:

Nigeria

Third quarter revenue decreased 10.7% year-on-year to $242.3 million. Organic revenue increased by $235.6 million, or 86.8%, driven primarily by foreign exchange resets and diesel prices, as well as continued growth in revenue from Colocation and Lease Amendments, partially offset by a reduction in revenues related to the new financial terms in the renewed contracts with MTN Nigeria, signed during the third quarter of 2024. The reported decrease in revenue was primarily driven by the impact of negative movements in foreign exchange rates with an average Naira rate of ₦1,601 to $1.00 in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the average rate of ₦768 to $1.00 in the third quarter of 2023. This led to a non-core decline of $264.7 million, or 97.5% year-on-year, a smaller decline compared to that which we reported during the second quarter of 2024 given the third quarter of 2023 was a period impacted by the significant devaluation of June 2023 but yet to benefit from our contracts resetting in the fourth quarter of 2023.

During the third quarter, Tenants decreased by 279 year-on-year, with growth of 535 from Colocation and 96 from New Sites, more than offset by 910 Churned (which includes, for the third quarter of 2024, 529 Tenants occupied by our smallest Key Customer on which we were not recognizing revenue), while Lease Amendments increased by 1,601 primarily due to 3G, 5G and fiber upgrades.

Segment Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter declined 3.2% year-on-year to $158.9 million, for a margin of 65.6%. The year-on-year decline in segment Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter primarily reflects the decrease in revenue discussed above, partially offset by a reduction in cost of sales, despite a year-on-year increase in the cost of diesel in the third quarter of $4.9 million. The reduction in cost of sales was primarily driven by a decrease in tower repairs and maintenance costs of $4.4 million and security services costs ($2.0 million), due to the movements in foreign exchange rates discussed above. The decrease was also driven by a reduction in the USD equivalent amounts of regulatory fees ($1.6 million) and staff costs ($1.2 million). These are solely due to the Naira devaluation discussed above, even though the underlying local costs increased during the period. The $9.6 million reduction in other cost of sales, respectively, primarily relates to the foreign exchange losses on goods in transit in Nigeria during the third quarter.

SSA

Third quarter revenue decreased 10.0% year-on-year to $120.1 million, primarily driven by movements in organic revenue, which decreased by $8.3 million, or 6.2%, due to factors including lower power pass through revenues being recognized after the changes in our agreements with MTN South Africa on the power managed services business. These changes to power pass through revenue have no impact on Adjusted EBITDA. Other factors impacting organic revenue include growth in Tenants, New Sites and Lease Amendments, together with escalations and foreign exchange resets. The overall decrease in revenue in the third quarter was also impacted by the non-core impact of negative movements in foreign exchange rates of $5.0 million, or 3.8%.

During the third quarter, Tenants increased by 729 year-on-year, including 664 from Colocation, 144 from New Sites and 79 from Churn, while Lease Amendments increased by 2,061.

Segment Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter grew 22.3% year-on-year to $81.0 million, for a margin of 67.5%. The year-on-year increase in segment Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter primarily reflects a decrease in cost of sales of $26.7 million, driven by reduced regulatory fees ($10.5 million) primarily relating to a review of the current and historical license obligations, and reduced tower repairs, maintenance costs security services costs and power generation costs of $3.0 million, $2.9 million and $9.5 million respectively, primarily due to the changes in our agreements with MTN South Africa discussed above. The impact on our third quarter cost of sales from these changes with MTN South Africa was reduced compared to the impact in the second quarter of 2024, driven by the one-off adjustments captured in the second quarter of 2024 relating to previous periods. This was partially offset by the decrease in revenue during the period.

Latam

Third quarter revenue decreased 13.0% year-on-year to $45.1 million and was primarily driven by the non-core impact of negative movements in foreign exchange rates of $6.2 million, or 11.9%. Organic revenue declined 0.6% in the quarter, or $0.3 million, driven by a reduction in revenues from our customer Oi S.A. (“Oi”) in Brazil as a result of their judicial recovery proceedings, partially offset by continued growth in Tenants, Lease Amendments and New Sites.

During the third quarter, Tenants increased by 657 year-on-year, including 793 from New Sites and 236 from Colocation, partially offset by 311 Churned and net divestiture of 61, primarily due to the disposal of Peru, while Lease Amendments increased by 201.

Third quarter segment Adjusted EBITDA declined 11.4% to $33.8 million and primarily reflects the decrease in revenue discussed above, as well as an increase in security services costs of $0.4 million, partially offset by a reduction in power generation costs and site rental costs of $0.4 million and $0.3 million, respectively.

MENA

Third quarter revenue increased 23.8% year-on-year to $12.7 million driven primarily by New Sites, Lease Amendments and escalations. Revenues grew inorganically in the period by $0.4 million, or 3.6%, driven primarily by the sixth stage of the Kuwait Acquisition, completed in August 2023.

During the third quarter, Tenants increased by 12 year-on-year, including 21 from New Sites, partially offset by 9 Churned, while Lease Amendments increased by 272.

Segment Adjusted EBITDA was $8.0 million for the third quarter, an increase of 55.5% year-on-year. The increase in segment Adjusted EBITDA primarily reflects the increase in revenue discussed above.

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