Helios Towers (LON:HTWS) executives used the company’s FY 2025 earnings call to highlight what CEO Tom Greenwood described as a milestone year in which the group’s operating model is now “operating at scale,” allowing it to fund growth, reduce leverage and begin returning surplus cash to shareholders.
Greenwood was joined on the call by CFO Manjit Dhillon and investor relations lead Chris Baker-Sams. Management also laid out FY 2026 guidance and reiterated the company’s longer-term “IMPACT 2030” strategy, which it framed around disciplined capital allocation and growing recurring free cash flow.
FY 2025 operational momentum and returns
Operationally, Helios Towers reported record tenancy additions of 2,538 in 2025, up 9% year-over-year. The company added 421 sites during the year and expanded its tenancy ratio by 0.1x to 2.2 tenants per site. Greenwood said the company achieved its 2.2 tenancy target more than a year earlier than planned, calling tenancy ratio a key driver of ROIC expansion and free cash flow generation.
Dhillon added that total sites rose 3% year-over-year to 14,746. He said the company is selective with new site rollout and uses analytics from its proprietary GIS platform to evaluate day-one returns and the probability of lease-up. Dhillon also said growth was seen across all markets, with particularly large increases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Oman.
Financial performance and cash flow conversion
Management said operational growth translated into higher earnings and cash generation in 2025. Greenwood reported that EBITDA increased 12% to $471 million, while recurring free cash flow rose 40% to $208 million. Free cash flow “more than tripled” to $66 million, and group ROIC expanded to 14%.
Dhillon reported revenue of $854 million, up 8% year-over-year, and pointed to a “strong hard currency profile,” with 68% of revenue and 71% of adjusted EBITDA in hard currencies. He said four markets—Oman, DRC, Senegal and Congo-Brazzaville—are either dollarized or pegged to the euro.
On the revenue and EBITDA bridge, Dhillon said tenancy additions were the key driver of growth, and escalators helped offset macro movements. He noted a small decrease in power-related revenues due to falling fuel prices in DRC and Tanzania that were passed through to customers, while the company’s own cost base also declined, contributing positively to EBITDA from power.
Dhillon said recurring free cash flow grew by $60 million on $50 million of EBITDA growth, aided by a high flow-through as non-discretionary CapEx, lease liabilities, taxes and interest were broadly stable or only marginally higher year-over-year. He added that working capital was ahead of expectations due to the timing of customer payments.
Management emphasized contractual protections and customer quality. Dhillon said contracts include annual CPI escalators and power escalators and de-escalators, with 70% of revenue from investment-grade customers and 99% from “blue chip” mobile network operators. He also reiterated the group’s contracted revenue base of $5.3 billion with an average remaining life of 6.6 years, excluding auto-renewals.
Balance sheet actions and shareholder returns
Greenwood said Helios Towers strengthened its capital structure in 2025, with net leverage reduced to 3.4x and credit ratings upgraded to Ba3 / BB-. He also highlighted a decline in the company’s average credit spread from 620 basis points at IPO to 290 basis points currently.
As part of efforts to reduce dilution, Greenwood said the company completed a $120 million convertible tender early, removing 41 million potentially dilutive shares. He added that by the end of 2025, Helios Towers had repurchased 11 million shares for $24 million at an average price of £1.58.
Dhillon said the company’s average remaining life of facilities is roughly three years and that it had $337 million of available funds through cash and undrawn debt lines. On a webcast question about potential refinancing, he said the balance sheet is strong and the company will remain proactive in monitoring opportunities.
FY 2026 guidance and capital allocation priorities
For FY 2026, management guided to:
- 2,000 to 2,500 tenancy additions
- $510 million to $525 million of adjusted EBITDA
- $210 million to $225 million of recurring free cash flow
- $110 million to $140 million of discretionary growth CapEx
- Approximately $76 million in shareholder distributions, consisting of a $51 million share buyback and a $25 million inaugural dividend (with a progressive dividend policy)
Dhillon said the 2026 tenancy guidance implies 6% to 8% year-over-year growth, while the EBITDA range implies 8% to 11% growth and recurring free cash flow implies 1% to 8% growth.
During Q&A, Dhillon said share buybacks had continued and that a perceived pause was related to a change in reporting cadence (from daily RNS announcements to weekly aggregation). Asked about the mix of 2026 growth, Dhillon said the company expects “roughly around 500” new sites at a minimum, with the balance coming from colocations, though he noted the number could evolve over the year.
Dhillon said new sites are evaluated with GIS analysis, including population demographics and proximity to other towers, and that day-one returns can be around 12% ROIC, with the investment case driven by expected lease-up. He said average lease-up is now achieved within 2–3 years. On geographic and site-type trends, he said the portfolio is typically more urban and semi-urban, with activity cited in markets including DRC and Tanzania, supplemented by Madagascar, Senegal and Malawi.
Market conditions and demand outlook
Greenwood and Dhillon repeatedly emphasized what they see as long-duration, structural growth in their markets, driven by coverage needs, capacity upgrades and technology transitions such as 4G densification and expected 5G rollouts over the coming years.
In response to investor questions about the Middle East and the impact of rising power prices on customer rollout plans, Greenwood said the company had seen no operational impact and was not seeing customers slow deployment plans. He said power is “a cost” but “relatively smaller” within the broader ecosystem, and described a typical 24-hour supply mix across the portfolio as roughly 17 hours from grid power, with the remainder split between diesel and solar/hybrid batteries.
On medium-term priorities, Dhillon said the company can pursue organic growth, shareholder distributions and deleveraging concurrently, while characterizing M&A as lower priority. Greenwood also clarified in response to a webcast question that the company’s targeted addition of more than 10,000 tenancies by 2030 is purely organic and does not assume M&A.
About Helios Towers (LON:HTWS)
Helios Towers is a leading independent telecommunications infrastructure company, having established one of the most extensive tower portfolios across Africa and the Middle East. It builds, owns and operates telecom passive infrastructure, providing services to mobile network operators.
Helios Towers owns and operates telecommunication tower sites in Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, Madagascar, Malawi and Oman.
Helios Towers pioneered the model in Africa of buying towers that were held by single operators and providing services utilising the tower infrastructure to the seller and other operators.
