Linklaters has advised Helios Towers, Africa’s leading independent telecoms infrastructure company, on its offering of US$850m 7.500% senior notes due 2029.

The firm also advised Helios Towers on its offer to repurchase for cash any and all of its outstanding 7.000% senior notes due 2025, and its full redemption of any remaining 2025 notes not repurchased in the tender offer.

Helios Towers operates towers at over 14,000 sites, serving more than 144 million people across the continent. It operates in nine countries in Africa and has also recently expanded its operations into the Middle East, operating sites across Oman.

The LSE-listed bond offering is intended to help Helios Towers refinance its existing debt through the concurrent tender offer and redemption. It also aims to improve access to information and communication services by targeting low levels of mobile and 4G penetration across the jurisdictions in which it operates.

The new notes were guaranteed by Helios Towers plc and certain of its subsidiaries. The transaction was anchored by commitments from British International Investment, the International Finance Corporation, the German Investment Corporation, and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund.

The Linklaters team was led by Global Head of US Capital Markets, Pam Shores, and Leveraged Finance partner, Colin Chang.

Linklaters’ High Yield team works at the very top end of the market on the most complex, high-value deals. The firm was one of the first to fully integrate its US high yield lawyers into its banking and finance practice, giving it the unique ability to deliver a full-service approach to multi-tranche bank and bond capital structures.