Engro has announced that it will inject total equity of Rs. 21.5 billion in its telecommunications infrastructure vertical.
Engro Corporation Limited (ENGRO) submitted a notification to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on August 25, 2021 (Wednesday) informing of this.
The notification stated that this investment is being made in their wholly-owned subsidiary Engro Connect (Private) Limited, which will serve as a platform for our telecommunications vertical initiatives.
According to the notice, these funds will primarily be utilized to fuel expansion in the Build-to-Suite (BTS) tower business of Enfrashare (Private) Limited, including but not limited to the provision of efficient energy solutions.
The notification also said that the project would also involve the installation of state-of-the-art network monitoring solutions and exploration of other investment avenues within the connectivity value chain.
While discussing this recent announcement, Ghias Khan – President & CEO of Engro Corporation, said,
“We believe that robust connectivity initiatives and best-in-class telecom infrastructure are the need of the hour for the country as the world is now moving swiftly towards digitalization and infrastructure sharing. While being focused on Engro’s purpose of solving some of Pakistan’s most pressing issues, we would utilize our considerable balance sheet and quality human capital to support our MNOs in their passive infrastructure requirements while creating an ecosystem for the deployment of next-generation networks.”
A promising growth story is seen for the telecom sector in Pakistan with the 3G/4G subscriber base expanding beyond 100 million and registering an annual growth of 28%, coupled with exponential data growth that has more than doubled from FY 2018 to FY 2020. With such strong development on the horizon, Enfrashare and its tower infrastructure will be a critical enabler for the MNOs to expand their networks while ensuring the quality of services.
Today, Enfrashare has over 1,800 operational sites with a current tenant base of 1,963 tenants and has framework agreements in place with all 4 Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country. Engro envisages mak Enfrashare a 5,000 BTS tower company by the year 2025.
Engro continued to expand its footprint in the Connectivity vertical through Engro Enfrashare, which has become Pakistan’s largest Independent Tower Company (with 46 percent of the market share) in terms of operational sites, serving all the Mobile Network Operators in Pakistan.
By June 2021, Enfrashare held a portfolio size of 1,817 operational sites and 1,963 tenancies, translating into a tenancy ratio of 1.08x, with a market share of 46 percent — an increase of five percent from a 41 percent share maintained in 2020.