Helios Towers Plc delivers strong financial performance, double-digit EBITDA growth

Helios Towers plc (LON:HTWS), the independent telecommunications infrastructure company, has announced results for the year to 31 December 2024.

Tom Greenwood, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“FY 2024 has been a year of significant progress. Our continued improvements in roll-out speed, power uptime and tenancy ratio expansion has supported mobile operators to deliver ever more reliable, expansive and sustainable mobile connectivity. Today, 151 million people are under the coverage footprint of our towers.

As expected, this operational execution and commitment to our colocation strategy translated into strong financial performance, with double-digit Adjusted EBITDA growth and ROIC expansion. The output of that progress is a US$100m improvement in free cash flow, inflecting to become positive for the first time, to US$19m. Achieving our tenth consecutive year of Adjusted EBITDA growth, underscores the Company’s ability to consistently capture the growth in Africa and Middle East with a robust and predictable business model.

Our financial guidance for FY 2025 includes continued growth, ROIC expansion and deleveraging and is supported by our 2.2x by 2026 strategy. We expect this will provide financial flexibility and capacity for the Company to commence returning capital to shareholders in 2026, while at the same time continuing to invest in attractive growth opportunities, driving value for all our stakeholders.”

	FY 2024	FY 2023	Change	Q4 2024	Q4 2023	Change
Sites	14,325	14,097	+2%	14,325	14,097	+2%
Tenancies	29,406	26,925	+9%	29,406	26,925	+9%
Tenancy ratio	2.05x	1.91x	+0.14x	2.05x	1.91x	+0.14x
Revenue (US$m)	792.0	721.0	+10%	207.3	187.3	+11%
Adjusted EBITDA (US$m)¹	421.0	369.9	+14%	109.1	100.7	+8%
Adjusted EBITDA margin¹	53%	51%	+2ppt	53%	54%	-1ppt
Operating profit (US$m)	242.3	146.1	+66%	51.7	33.5	+54%
Portfolio free cash flow (US$m)¹	298.4	268.2	+11%	80.8	71.1	+14%
Free cash flow (US$m)¹	18.7	(81.1)	+99.8	39.8	(58.7)	+98.5
Cash generated from operations (US$m)	397.2	318.5	+25%	154.0	78.8	+95%
Net debt (US$m)¹	1,735.5	1,783.1	-3%	1,735.5	1,783.1	-3%
Net leverage^1,2	4.0x	4.4x	-0.4x	4.0x	4.4x	-0.4x

1 Alternative Performance Measures are described in our defined terms and conventions.

2 Calculated as per the Senior Notes definition of net debt divided by annualised Adjusted EBITDA.

Financial highlights

Financial performance driven by tenancy growth, underpinned by a base of contracted revenues that feature CPI and power price protections

· FY 2024 revenue increased by 10%, predominantly driven by tenancy growth

· FY 2024 Adjusted EBITDA increased by 14%, reflecting tenancy growth and margin accretive tenancy ratio expansion

· FY 2024 Adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 2ppt, driven by +0.14x tenancy ratio expansion

· FY 2024 operating profit increased by 66%, driven by growth in Adjusted EBITDA and lower depreciation of US$52.8m, largely reflecting an update to our tower asset depreciation policy, effective from 1 January 2024

· FY 2024 profit after tax inflected positive for the first time in the Company’s history, improving from a loss before tax of US$111.8m to US$27.0m, driven by higher operating profit, US$34.9m lower finance costs and a benefit from a one-off tax credit

· FY 2024 portfolio free cash flow increased by 11%, driven by Adjusted EBITDA growth, partially offset higher taxes paid

· FY 2024 ROIC expanded by 1ppt to 13%, driven by portfolio free cash flow growth through capital efficient tenancy ratio expansion

· FY 2024 free cash flow increased by US$99.8m, inflecting positive for the first time in the Company’s history, to US$18.7m, driven by Adjusted EBITDA growth, lower capital expenditure and improved working capital

· FY 2024 cash generated from operations increased by 25%, driven by Adjusted EBITDA growth and improved working capital

· Net leverage decreased by 0.4x year-on-year to 4.0x

o In February 2025, the Group received a second rating upgrade from S&P within a year, increasing to BB- (Stable)

· Business underpinned by future contracted revenues of US$5.1bn (FY 2023: US$5.4bn), of which 99.4% is from multinational MNOs, with an average remaining initial life of 6.9 years

Operational highlights

Structurally high-growth markets, leading market positions and customer service focus supporting strong and consistent tenancy growth

· Sites increased by 228 year-on-year to 14,325, driven by DRC and Tanzania (FY 2023: 14,097)

· Tenancies increased by 2,481 year-on-year to 29,406, driven by Tanzania and Oman (FY 2023: 26,925)

· Tenancy ratio increased by 0.14x year-on-year to 2.05x (FY 2023: 1.91x)

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

· The Group has made continued progress against many of its Sustainable Business Strategy targets in FY 2024:

o 151m population coverage footprint (FY 2023: 144m)

o 6,008 rural sites, achieving 2026 target of 6,000 sites (FY 2023: 5,817)

o Record 99.99% power uptime (FY 2023: 99.98%)

o 6% reduction in carbon emissions per tenant (FY 2023: 4%)¹

o 58% employees trained in Lean Six Sigma (FY 2023: 53%)

o 29% female employees (FY 2023: 28%)

o 95% local employees in our operating companies (FY 2023: 96%)

· The Company has been recognised by external rating agencies for its Sustainable Business Strategy and commitment to transparency

o ‘AAA’ rating from MSCI reaffirmed

o Inclusion in the FTSE4Good Index for a third consecutive year

o Scored B in 2024 CDP disclosure

o Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI) disclosure score of 87% in 2024 (2023: 80%), exceeding both sector and UK company average

1 Reflects change in Scope 1 and 2 emissions from a 2020 baseline. Decrease reflects tenancy growth exceeding absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions growth.

2025 outlook and guidance

· 2,000 – 2,500 tenancy additions

· Adjusted EBITDA of US$460m – US$470m

· Capital expenditure of US$150m – US$180m

o Of which, US$100m – US$130m and US$50m is expected to be discretionary¹ and non-discretionary², respectively

· Free cash flow of US$40m – US$60m³

· Net leverage c.3.5x

1 Discretionary includes acquisitions, growth and upgrade capex.

2 Non-discretionary includes maintenance and corporate capex.

3 Assumes a net working capital outflow of approximately $20m.

Helios Towers’ management will host a conference call for analysts and institutional investors at 09.30 GMT on Thursday, 13 March 2025. For the best user experience, please access the conference via the webcast. You can pre-register and access the event using the link below:

Registration Link – Helios Towers FY 2024 Results Conference Call

Event Name: FY2024

Password: HELIOS

If you are unable to use the webcast for the event, or if you intend to participate in Q&A during the call, please dial in using the details below: