New York Stock Exchange listed IHS Towers, the largest independent owner, operator and developer of shared communications infrastructure in Africa and one of the largest in the world by tower count, has delivered strong third quarter earnings ahead of expectations while revisiting its full 2025 guidance upwards.
This is on the back of its strong Nigeria performance where Sam Darwish, chairman and CEO, IHS Holding tells thousands of Wall Street investors and analysts on its earnings call that:
“The current Nigerian administration has done in our opinion a great job in stabilizing and improving the economic outlook of the country as they increase reserves and strengthened the currency, while reducing red tape for businesses among other fundamental actions. So, we are upbeat about Nigeria.“
In Nigeria, revenue increased 10.6% year-on-year to $268.0 million, driven by organic growth during the period and supplemented by favorable movements in the Naira versus the U.S. dollar.
Across the Group, revenue for the period increased by 8.3% year-on-year to $455.1 million, despite a 3.0% inorganic revenue headwind resulting from the disposal of the Company’s Kuwait operations in December 2024.
Organic revenue growth of 6.6% reflected constant currency growth of 8.7% and the benefit of foreign exchange (“FX”) resets, partially offset by a reduction in revenues linked to power indexation. Constant currency growth was primarily driven by higher contributions from colocation, lease amendments, new sites, fiber, and escalators.
This strong underlying performance was further supported by a 4.7% benefit from favorable FX movements, particularly the appreciation of the Nigerian Naira against the U.S. dollar.
Adjusted EBITDA rose by 6.3% year-on-year to $261.5 million, despite a 3.3% impact from the Kuwait disposal. The Adjusted EBITDA margin of 57.5% remained consistent with the second quarter of 2025, while net income for the period totaled $147.4 million.
Adjusted Levered Free Cash Flow (ALFCF) surged by 81.2% to $157.8 million, reflecting management actions to enhance free cash flow generation and the re-phasing of interest payments between quarters following the November 2024 bond refinancing. Cash from operations increased by 42.3% to $259.6 million.
Total capital expenditure rose 16.3% year-on-year to $77.3 million, driven by the timing of maintenance and augmentation projects. The consolidated net leverage ratio improved to 3.3x, down 0.6x from the prior year, comfortably within the Company’s target range of 3.0x to 4.0x.
Reflecting the strong year-to-date performance and favorable currency movements, the Company has raised its full-year 2025 guidance.
In Nigeria the Group’s largest operation, organic revenue increased by $12.2 million, an increase of 5.0% year-on-year, driven primarily by foreign exchange resets and escalations, which more than offset a reduction in revenues linked to diesel prices.
Continued growth in revenue from Colocation, Lease Amendments and New Sites was partially offset by Churn related to the approximately 1,050 sites MTN Nigeria agreed to vacate as part of the renewed and extended contracts with MTN Nigeria, signed during the third quarter of 2024.
The increase in organic revenue was supplemented by favorable movements in foreign exchange rates used to translate the results of foreign operations, with an average Naira rate of ₦1,523 to $1.00 in the third quarter of 2025 compared to an average rate of ₦1,601 to $1.00 in the third quarter of 2024.
This led to a non-core increase of $13.5 million, or 5.6% year-on-year.
