Indonesia's Mitratel purchases 803 telecom towers as part of its growth plan

On Thursday, Gametraco Tunggal, a local telecom infrastructure company, sold 803 towers to Mitratel, the largest telecom tower company in Indonesia, for a sum of $113 million.

With this acquisition, Mitratel, also known as Dayamitra Telekomunikasi, now has 1,327 additional tenants. This comes after the company recently paid $5 million to acquire 967 kilometers of fiber optic lines connecting Jakarta to Central Java.

Both transactions were fully funded by proceeds from the company's 2021 initial public offering, it said.

Mitratel, supported by Singapore's GIC, raised $1.76 billion during its initial public offering (IPO), making it one of the largest in Indonesian history. GIC holds 5.56% of Mitratel, while the Indonesia Investment Authority, the nation's sovereign wealth fund, owns 5.97% of the company.

All of the float's proceeds, according to Mitratel President and Director Theodorus Ardi Hartoko, have been used to finance the expansion of towers and tenants.

Over 37,000 towers and 30,000 fiber optic connections are owned by Mitratel. The majority of its towers, or 58%, are situated outside of Java, the island with the largest population in the nation.

The Telkom Group, mostly owned by the Indonesian government, is the company's owner. Fifty-five percent of Mitratel's 55,704 tenants are affiliated with Telkom's cellular operator, Telkomsel.

In spite of the nation's rapidly increasing bandwidth consumption, telecom tower players, such as Mitratel, have been steadily investing in fiber optics.

With a third-quarter net profit of 1.43 trillion rupiah ($92.3 million), Mitratel increased its annual profit by 11.9%.