The operator has also received interest from American Tower and Helios Towers Africa. While MTN is said to favour a transaction with IHS, a deal has not been agreed on and may not happen, reports Bloomberg.
In June 2015 Bharti Airtel revealed that it had terminated its deal with Helios Towers Africa for the sale of around 800 towers in Tanzania and Tchad.
MTN is presently restructuring its South African operations to regain market share from market leader Vodacom Group.
The operator has approximately 19,000 telecoms sites in South Africa and more than 231 million subscribers across 22 markets in Africa. IHS owns approximately 15,000 towers in Nigeria and over 23,000 towers across Africa.
