Helios Towers plc, the independent telecommunications infrastructure company, has released its financial results for the nine months ending on September 30, 2023.
The company’s performance has been marked by robust growth in tenancy, supported by an expanding base of contracted revenues incorporating CPI and power price protections.
I am pleased to report another strong quarter of performance, with record year-to-date tenancy additions and accelerating organic Adj. EBITDA growth. Accordingly, we have further increased our FY 2023 guidance, and are on track to deliver one of our best ever years of organic growth. Alongside the positive operational performance, we also strengthened our balance sheet through reducing net leverage down within our target range, ahead of plan, and opportunistically extended our average debt maturities with a minimal increase in cost of debt. The momentum from FY 2023 is expected to continue into FY 2024, supporting continued tenancy ratio expansion, double-digit
Tom Greenwood, Chief Executive Officer, Helios Towers
organic Adj. EBITDA growth and further reducing net leverage to below 4.0x.
Key financial highlights for the period include:
- Year-on-year revenue growth of 31% to US$533.7 million, attributed to record organic tenancy expansion and strategic acquisitions in Malawi and Oman.
- A 30% increase in Adjusted EBITDA year-on-year, reaching US$269.2 million, driven by tenancy growth. Excluding acquisitions, Adjusted EBITDA increased by 16% year-on-year.
- Adjusted EBITDA margin for YTD 2023 decreased by 1 percentage point year-on-year to 50%, but when factoring out the impact of higher fuel prices, the margin expanded by 2 percentage points year-on-year.
- Operating profit saw a significant year-on-year increase of 79% to US$112.6 million, propelled by growth in Adjusted EBITDA.
- Portfolio free cash flow for YTD 2023 rose by 36% year-on-year to US$197.1 million, driven by Adjusted EBITDA growth and improved cash conversion.
- Cash generated from operations for YTD 2023 increased by 48% year-on-year to US$239.7 million, attributed to higher Adjusted EBITDA, improved working capital, and reduced deal costs.
- Net leverage showed a year-to-date decrease of 0.6x, aligning with the Group’s medium-term target range of 3.5x-4.5x.
The business’s future contracted revenues stand at US$5.5 billion (as of H1 2023), with 99% originating from multinational MNOs. These contracts have an average remaining life of 7.8 years.
The increase in contracted revenue by US$0.6 billion quarter-on-quarter is a reflection of the addition of tenancies and a 10-year contract extension with a key customer, covering approximately 2,300 tenancies.
