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

Steve Howden: I’ll let Sam answer the second one. In terms of the first one on organic growth, there isn’t too much more we can add. I think, 2022 is in reasonable shape in terms of what you’d expect to see going forward. The only one I would caution slightly is LatAM, which, in 2022, was calculated off a small base in 2021. So that will moderate slightly in 2023 in terms of growth percentage terms. So sorry to not be a bit more for that, but that’s what we disclosed.

Sam Darwish: And regarding the second question, I think it’s important to note again that our priority for this year. Remain basically to focus on the core, while, of course, keeping an eye on the future. And when I say. Focus on the core double-digit top line growth, the balance sheet, which you’ve rightfully mentioned, we’ve done a lot of measures to kind of like shift most of the maturities further down the road, the Project Green of course, reducing OpEx and CapEx. Now having said that, we are in a very healthy position at the moment. Our leverage remains at around 3.2x, which is at the lower end of our indicated range and much lower than most of our peers. We have roughly $1 billion or more of dry powder. So. We are in a good spot to be able to look into the future.

Having said that, we will only consider at the moment, projects that could generate outside risk-adjusted returns. And how strategically spot on. For example, you may have noticed that in Brazil, for example, we expect to triple the number of BTS this year versus last year. I mean, this is the kind of thing that we like, Project Green. If an M&A project presents it self that fits this criteria, we will definitely consider it.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Brett Feldman from Goldman Sachs.

Brett Feldman: And I’ll follow up with something that Sam just mentioned. You reiterated the intent to significantly accelerate the pace of new builds in Brazil. So the question is who are you building for? What’s driving that? And, I would assume you have an anchor tenant on all these towers. So I guess, the real question would be, how much visibility do you have into lease up beyond the anchor tenants that you’re building for? And then, with regards to the upstreaming that you’ve been doing with the Naira, you’ve obviously been very successful there. How are you thinking about the intent or need to continue that pace of upstreaming this year, particularly as you ramp Project Green? I’m wondering if there’s a desire to execute more of the cash in the country.

Sam Darwish: Brett, I’ll take the first question, while Steve takes the second question. Look, we continue to work with the various operators in Brazil. We have a very good relationship with Telkom Italy, given the partnership we have done with them and then the massive support we’re providing on fiber, but we work with the Claro, we work with . Our BTS project in Brazil is largely driven by the that. That country needs to still expand its infrastructure network and it’s moving into 5G. We are extremely positive about that. And many of the — or actually most of what we’re talking about is — are in the pipeline already. So these are projected ETFs that will happen, and you’ll see them coming through quarter after quarter. Steve?

Steve Howden: And then on the second question, Brett, in terms of Nigerian upstream. I mean, just keep in mind, the cash proceeds or the use of cash if you like for Project Green, we put out, we spent $104 million in 2022 on Project Green, and that was in Nigeria. And we’re expecting to spend $90 million to $100 million, in 2023. And again, most of that will be in Nigeria. The CapEx investment between the 2 years is not that dissimilar from a Nigerian perspective. So why am I saying all that, and we are obviously prioritizing cash into that project, as I said before, but we will look to continue upstreaming from Nigeria. $207 million last year was a really good result. It was higher than the $179-odd million, we did in the prior year. So we will continue to keep sourcing FX, if we think it’s at an appropriate price.