Helios Towers

HTWS.L

Telecommunications Services · Communication Services

Exchange

London Stock Exchange

Winston Score

Winston is curious

Mixed quality — meaningful strengths and weaknesses.

Data as of Aug 23, 2026 · filings through Jun 30, 2026

How the score breaks down

Quality

Strong

Growth

Mixed

Cash Flow

Strong

Stability

Good

Valuation

Weak

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Winston Score History

The full picture

Helios Towers builds and operates mobile phone towers across Africa and the Middle East. It rents space on these towers to mobile network operators — companies like Vodacom, Airtel, and MTN — who need the infrastructure to deliver calls and data to their customers. The company owns thousands of towers across countries including Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Oman.

Helios Towers makes money by charging telecom companies a recurring fee to attach their equipment to its towers, a model called "tenancy." The more operators share a single tower, the more profitable that tower becomes — this is the core of its competitive advantage. The company operates across roughly ten markets and generated around $600 million in annual revenue. The main growth driver is rising mobile data demand across Africa, where network coverage is still expanding, though the business carries significant debt from building out its tower portfolio, which is a key financial risk to watch.

Growth Profile

For growth stock investors

When traditional metrics don't capture the full picture, these are the signals growth stock investors use instead.

Revenue Growth

+11.5% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Steady revenue growth

EPS Growth

-35.9% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Earnings declining

Insider Activity

1.0%ownership

↓ Declining

Insider ownership declining — could be dilution or selling

Cash Position

Cash flow positive

£217M cash & investments

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↑ Burn rate improving

Company generates more cash than it spends — no dilution risk from fundraising

Growth + cash flow

Helios Towers is a rare growth stock that's already generating positive cash flow while growing at 11%. The Winston Score doesn't fully credit this transition from "burner" to "earner."

The Winston Score above measures business quality today. Growth stocks often score lower because they invest in the future rather than maximising current profits. These metrics show what matters most for evaluating that future.

Score breakdown

Every number that matters to educated investors.

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Quality

Profit per sale

Gross Margin

54.4%

Healthy — 54.4% gross margin

Profit after running costs

Operating Margin

34.9%

Excellent — 34.9% operating margin

Return on the money invested

ROCE

17.6%

Strong — 17.6% return on capital

ROIC between 15% and 25%. Every dollar invested in the business earns 15 to 25 cents back per year.

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Growth

Sales growth

Sales YoY

+10.0%

Steady sales growth (+10.0% YoY)

Profit growth

EPS YoY

-62.5%

Earnings shrinking (-62.5% YoY)

Earnings per share down more than 10%. Either a bad year, or a real decline.

How steady the profit is

EPS Consistency

4/8 quarters

Earnings inconsistent quarter-to-quarter

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Cash Flow

Profit that turns into cash

Cash Conversion

808%

Turns 808% of profit into real cash

Spare cash per sale

FCF Margin

7.2%

Modest free cash flow (7.2%)

FCF margin between 0% and 10%. Some cash from sales, but not a lot.

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Stability

What it owes vs what it owns

Debt / Equity

43.57

Heavy debt load (43.57)

Covers its interest

Interest Cover

100.00x

Comfortably covers interest (100.0x)

Interest coverage above 8. Profits cover interest many times over.

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Valuation

Price vs profit

P/E Ratio (TTM)

104.5x

no trend

Expensive — P/E 104.5

P/E over 35. The market is pricing in heavy, sustained growth.

Cheaper or dearer next year

P/E vs Forward

N/A

not available

Data not available

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Dividends

Not applicable for this business.

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