First long term financing for telecom towers
Yangon, Myanmar — January 9th, 2016
Irrawaddy Green Towers has arranged a financial package of USD 122 million through the Dutch development bank FMO. The syndicated loan is funded from European Development Finance Institutions for Irrawaddy Green Towers Ltd. (IGT) to build mobile communications infrastructure across Myanmar. The financial package consist of a subordinated loan of USD 13 million with a tenor of 9 years and a long term senior loan of USD 109 million with a tenor of 8 years. FMO subscribes to the subordinated loan out of the Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF) which FMO manages on behalf of the Ministry for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. The senior loan is syndicated among European Development Finance Institutions with following participations: Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH DEG (Germany), Proparco (France), CDC Group (Great Britain), BIO (Belgium) and OeEB (Austria).
In Myanmar, IGT is building a mobile telecommunication tower network consisting of at least 2,000 towers, thus providing coverage to approximately 14 million people. Mainly in rural areas this can provide a significant stimulus for economic development, i.e. by improving access to mobile financial services and service offers.
The development of the necessary telecom infrastructure for a countrywide mobile network is supported by IGT in a great extent by rolling out the telecom towers across Myanmar. The company, which was founded in 2014, intends to invest a total amount of USD 230 million in the near term. Since its foundation, IGT has created 320 direct jobs. Another 1,000 indirect jobs already created in relation to the erection and operation of the towers. The expansion of the mobile sector is also intended to improve the framework conditions for foreign investments and has a great development impact on Myanmar.
IGT CEO commented:
the funding package is part of IGT’s $230 million long-term investment plan in mobile communications infrastructure across Myanmar. As IGT, we offers a comprehensive range of training and qualification programs for our staff and, in doing so, provides an important contribution to the transfer of technical and economic know-how towards Myanmar