Telkomsel (PT Telekomunikasi Selular), a joint venture between Telkom Indonesia and Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), today announced that it has agreed to sell 4.0k telecommunications towers in Indonesia to PT Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel) for ~$435m USD (6.2 trillion Indonesian Rupiah). In turn, this implies that Mitratel is valuing Telkomsel’s 4.0k towers at an Enterprise Value per tower of $109k.
As part of the transaction, Telkomsel has entered into a 10-year sale-and-leaseback agreement with Mitratel for its continued use of the 4.0k towers.
Notably, in the Telkomsel joint venture, Telkom Indonesia has a 65% ownership interest, while Singtel owns the remaining 35% of the company. Whereas, the buyer, Mitratel is wholly-owned by Telkom Indonesia, functioning as its infrastructure unit.
Transaction Rationale – Mitratel and Telkomsel (Telkom Indonesia, Singtel)
For Telkomsel, the monetization of its towers allows the wireless carrier to improve its capital structure, by repaying debt. Additionally, Telkomsel is focusing on its core business of providing wireless connectivity services to its customers in Indonesia.
Alternatively, for Mitratel, the addition of 4.0k telecommunications towers to its existing 24.0k tower portfolio in Indonesia, enhances its market position. Indeed, pro forma for today’s announcement, Mitratel owns 28.0k+ telecommunications towers across Indonesia in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
Overall, Mitratel’s acquisition of 4.0k telecommunications towers, provides the company with more infrastructure on which to add tenants. Particularly, this will be important for Mitratel’s tower business as 5G is rolled-out in Indonesia.
Follow-On Transaction
Telkomsel and Mitratel’s towers sale-and-leaseback agreement follows a similar agreement between the two companies in October 2020. Specifically, at this time, Mitratel acquired 6.0k+ towers for $701m USD, equating to an Enterprise Value per tower of $116k.
Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Mitratel’s scale, with 28.0k+ telecommunications towers across Indonesia, enables the business to consider being a standalone public company. To this end, in April 2021, Bloomberg reported that Mitratel was evaluating a capital raise of ~$1bn through an initial public offering (IPO). Indeed, Mitratel noted in today’s announcement that it “is ready to optimize its value creation further through bigger corporate action”.
Mitratel – Overview
As of June 30, 2021, Mitratel owned ~23k towers with a tenancy ratio of 1.57x. Location-wise, 57% of the company’s towers are located outside of Java, Indonesia and 43% are located in Java, Indonesia.
Financial Performance – First-Half of 2021
In the first-half of 2021, Mitratel reported revenue of ~$220m USD (3.2 trillion Indonesian Rupiah), a 10.9% increase year-over-year. At the same time, the company generated adjusted EBITDA of ~$168m USD (2.45 trillion Indonesian Rupiah). Therefore, the company’s EBITDA margin was 76.5% in H1 2021, a 9.9% improvement year-over-year.
Customers
Mitratel counts all major Indonesian wireless carriers as its tenants, having placed their base transceiver stations (BTS) on Mitratel’s towers.
