Telecom Egypt has announced plans to divest a significant stake in its regional data centre assets to Helios Investments.
The company’s board of directors has given preliminary approval to a binding offer from Helios to acquire a stake ranging from 75-80% in a subsidiary that will own the Regional Data Hub (RDH) data centre campus in Cairo. Telecom Egypt will retain approximately 20-25% of the business upon completion of the deal.
The RDH project, launched in phases starting in 2020, is a prominent data centre campus located in Cairo. The first phase, which became operational in 2021, provides about 2.5MW of IT load and reached full capacity within a year. The second phase, RDH2, is designed to support roughly 4.6MW and is capable of hosting up to 4,000 racks across four buildings.
While Telecom Egypt did not disclose detailed plans beyond the sale, the subsidiary owned jointly by the two companies will focus on data centre development within Egypt. The Helios offer values the RDH business at approximately $230 million, with the potential to reach up to $260 million depending on the achievement of certain key performance indicators.
Founded in 2004, Helios Investments specializes in private equity investments across Africa, having previously invested in companies such as Afsat Communications, Helios Towers, Maroc Datacenter in Morocco, and IXAfrica in Kenya. The firm divested its 60% stake in Telkom Kenya in 2022 to the Kenyan government.
EFG Hermes is serving as the sole financial advisor for the transaction, while legal counsel is provided by ADSERO-Ragy Soliman & Partners and A&O Shearman for Telecom Egypt.
At the time of announcing the RDH project, Telecom Egypt operated six data centres in Greater Cairo and Alexandria. However, the company recently experienced a tragic fire at its Ramses data centre in Cairo, resulting in four fatalities and injuries to around 26 individuals.
