Indonesian telecoms infrastructure Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel) said it has added more towers and optical fibre to its portfolio via separate acquisition deals worth a combined US$167.3 million.
Mitratel, a subsidiary of Telkom Indonesia, said on Thursday it had acquired 803 towers belonging to Gametraco Tunggal worth IDR 1.75 trillion (US$112.6 million). Of those, 241 towers are located on the island of Java, while the remainder are outside of the island.
Mitratel President Director Theodorus Ardi Hartoko said that many telecoms players in Indonesia are looking to expand their market share outside of Java as demand for internet connectivity grows elsewhere in the archipelago.
“Of course we have to be at the forefront in helping their expansion,” he said.
Apart from giving Mitratel more towers outside of Java, the Gametraco deal also comes with an additional 1,327 new tenants, which will increase Mitratel’s tenancy ratio, Hartoko added.
Meanwhile, also on Thursday, Mitratel revealed it had acquired 967.1 km of optical fibre from Power Telecom for IDR 85 billion.
Mitratel said the fibre has a billable length of over 1,144 km, which means the new fibre complements its tower business portfolio with a billable ratio of 1.18x.
Mitratel said the transaction was sourced from internal funds, noting that it had budgeted a capex of IDR 7 trillion for 2023, 58% of which had been absorbed by the end of the third quarter of 2023.
“This means that Mitratel has sufficient liquidity to finance tower and fibre optic expansion until the end of this year,” the company said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Mitratel reported profit growth of 16.6% year-on-year to IDR14 trillion in Q3 2023, while revenue increased 11.9% to IDR6.3 trillion. In that quarter, Mitratel’s tower portfolio grew 5.8% year on year to 37,091 towers, while its optical fibre assets grew from 5,872 km to 29,042 km.
Hartoko said Mitratel’s expansion strategy will make it the largest digital infrastructure company in Asia Pacific.
Research firm Dgtl Infra said in September that Mitratel was the 13th biggest telecoms tower company in the world based on the number of towers. As of June 2023, Statista ranked Mitratel at #15 globally, but also said it was the largest tower company in Southeast Asia.
