Standard Bank backs Helios Towers with $29m trade finance deal

Standard Bank has provided a $29 million (R475.33 million) social documentary credit facility to telecommunications infrastructure company Helios Towers to fund the procurement and importation of telecoms equipment across Africa.

The facility, structured in line with the Loan Market Association’s Social Loan Principles, will support Helios Towers’ working capital needs and infrastructure expansion programme while providing payment certainty to suppliers.

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Standard Bank said the financing is meant to expand telecommunications infrastructure and improve digital connectivity in underserved and remote markets across the continent.

The transaction is the bank’s first documentary credit facility structured under a sustainable finance framework.

Helios Towers, which owns and operates telecommunications tower infrastructure across Africa, said the funding would support continued investment in tower expansion and network densification.

“Reliable digital infrastructure is fundamental to Africa’s future growth and development,” Alex Carter, group finance director at Helios Towers, notes.

“This facility provides us with the flexibility and certainty needed to support our ongoing infrastructure investments while advancing our mission of expanding connectivity across the continent.”

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Benoit Samouilhan, global transaction banker at Standard Bank Corporate and Investment Banking, says the transaction combined a social documentary credit facility with a cross-border funding solution to support Helios Towers’ expansion.