IHS Holding Limited (NYSE:IHS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Rollins from Citi.

Michael Rollins: I’m curious, in the past, you’ve mentioned the consideration of some actions to try to improve value for shareholders. Curious, if you can give us an update on what the company may be considering, and how you see opportunities on that front? And then secondly, in terms of the organic revenue growth guidance for 2023, can you unpack some of the important pieces to get to that growth figure that you described in terms of how much might be coming from escalation, new colocation amendments, some of that internal activity that contributes to the total?

Steve Howden: Sure. Mike. So in terms of your first question on shareholder value unlock, as you know, it remains a topic that we continue to debate all the time on our side. Clearly, the markets remain volatile, and we have to keep looking to see, whether there are conducive opportunities for us to do things. We continue to discuss over the board, and that will remain. As we mentioned in the call, we have a couple of milestones this year, in terms of shareholder unblocks coming. So we are continuing to monitor that, and we will do so through the course of this year, and be ready to act, if we think there’s an opportunity for us to help unlock shareholder value. As you know, we’re committed to continuing to deliver the results of the business.

We think this is a good performance that we’re putting through here, in terms of Q4 and the full year for last year and a good solid guidance as well for 2023. So hopefully, people are starting to build that track record with a number of quarters of performance delivery.

Sam Darwish: In terms of the organic growth for 2023, as you know, we don’t split out the different building blocks of the guidance, other than to say we’re putting forward 23% organic guidance — against growth there is the guidance at the midpoint of the range. It’s actually 21%, if you back out that onetime item that we mentioned in terms of Q1. And the only other thing I would say is, I would expect CPI to be a higher block than it has been in 2022, given the inflationary environment that we all know we’re in. And then some of the other blocks I’d expect to see similar sorts of shapes other than make power, I would expect to moderate slightly.

Michael Rollins: And then just one other question on that. For power, is that power change roughly offset by the cost? And if your power and energy costs eventually come down, does that go from being a tailwind to a headwind, that we just should consider for the future?

Sam Darwish: Headwind in terms of revenue, but not headwind in terms of overall profitability, right, because that block moves in tandem with our cost of sale, i.e. diesel or electricity as the case may be. So what we were showing in the course of FY ’22, as we had $147 million of diesel spend and $77 million of diesel-related pass-through revenue. So, we were roughly 40% covered in terms of the cost that we incurred versus pass through. So if that diesel cost starts to drop, yes, the diesel revenue will drop, but so will our cost base.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Greg Williams from TD Cowen.

Gregory Williams: I know you mentioned you’re not splitting organic growth now, but I was wondering if you could help us, at least with organic growth by region, just on a directional level. Should we expect similar trends we saw in the fourth quarter, Nigeria in the high 20s, et cetera? Second question is just on the M&A landscape. You noted in the past, private multiples remain high, and you’re taking your time to focus on the balance sheet, which you’ve done a great job, in the last few months doing so. Just hoping you can provide an update on the landscape, and your expectations of the environment in 2023? I understand fluid and difficult to do so, but your insights would be appreciated.