Helios Towers shares fall as oil price volatility outweighs upbeat results
12/03/2026 15:43
By Rishab Shaju March 12 (Reuters) - Shares in UK-listed Helios Towers HTWS.L slid nearly 9% on Thursday, as jittery oil markets and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East outweighed the Africa-focused operator's beating of annual earnings expectations. The "decline likely reflects a combination of higher oil prices, Helios' Oman exposure and investor profit-taking," Berenberg analyst Alexander Short said. The telecommunications tower operator uses a hybrid power model across its operations in Africa and the Middle East, with around 79% of its sites connected by grids. However, due to frequent outages in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Tanzania, the company relies heavily on diesel generators as a backup, highlighting its exposure to oil prices. Diesel historically accounted for 35% of Helios Towers' total cost. Its European rivals Cellnex CLNX.MC and Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane INWT.MI were also down 2.6% and 3.5%, respectively. "We take a very diversified approach to power provisioning...that means a mixture of grid power, solar power, hybrid battery power and diesel generator power as a sort of backup," CEO Tom Greenwood told Reuters in an interview. The mast operator reported adjusted core profit of $471.1 million, beating company-compiled estimates of $469.4 million and forecast its first-ever dividend of $25 million for the financial year 2026. Helios, which had gained 12.6% this year up to yesterday's close, dropped as much as 8.7% on Thursday, marking its steepest intra-day loss since November 2024. (Reporting by Rishab Shaju in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore) ((Rishab.shaju@thomsonreuters.com ; +91 9048142177))