Bharti draws funds to acquire Zain African assets
By Editor on May 28, 2010 · Leave a Comment
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telco by both customers and revenues has started drawing down funds from lenders for completing its buy of Kuwaiti telecom Zain’s African assets in a $9-billion deal. The deal to acquire Zain Telecom’s African business is expected to be completed by the Indian telecom operator soon.
Bharti Airtel signed a deal with Kuwait-based Zain Telecom in March to buy its African business for $10.7 billion, consummation of which will transform Bharti into a truly global telecom company with operations across 18 countries. Bharti Airtel would also get a firm foothold in the relatively untapped African market through this deal.
Currently, Bharti Airtel is in the process of getting approval from each of the 15 African nations where Zain operates in the continent and has been successful in getting them except in Sudan and Morocco.
The deal worth $10.7-billion had been signed in Amsterdam, the base of Zain’s African unit on March 30 and included $1.7 billion of Zain’s debt in the total amount. Bharti Airtel will have over 180 million subscribers after acquiring Zain Africa’s 42 million customers, thus becoming the world’s fifth-largest mobile phone operator.
Bharti Airtel had announced just days before singing the deal with Zain that it had finalized $8.5 billion of funding for its acquisition of the African assets of Zain. According to the company, consortium of banks led by Standard Chartered and Barclays would lend it $7.5 billion and State Bank of India will bring in another $1 billion, the latter a so-called rupee loan.
The largest chunk of funding of $1.5 billion of which $500 million is a dollar loan has been provided by India’s largest bank, State Bank of India. The lead arranger for the dollar loan is Standard Chartered that will lend $1.3 billion while Barclays the joint lead advisor will provide $900 million. The remaining $4.8 billion will be provided by a group of eight international banks.
Filed under Mobile · Tagged with Africa, Amsterdam, ASIA, Barclay, Bharti Airtel, India, Kuwait, Mobile, Morocco, operator, Standard Chartered, State Bank, State Bank of India, Sudan, Zain Africa
MTN Uganda raises USD 100 Mn for network expansion
By Editor on October 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment
MTN in Uganda has raised USD 100 Million for network expansion with Absa Capital as the lead arranger.
Stanbic Bank, Standard Chartered, Kenya Commercial Bank, Barclays, DFCU and Orient bank participated to raise the amount. Isaac Nsereko, chief marketing officer of MTN Uganda confirmed the development to Reuters.
Uganda has a total of 6 telecom players: Uganda Telecom (UTL), Zain, Orange, Warid, I-Telecom and MTN. MTN is the largest with 60% market share and just under 5 million subscribers, according to Isaac Nsereko.
Filed under Mobile · Tagged with Absa, Barclay, Barclays, DFCU, I-Tel, I-Telecom, Isaac Nsereko, Kenya, Market Share, MTN, MTN Uganda, Network, Network Expansion, Orange, Orient, Stanbic, Stanbic Bank, Standard Chartered, telecom, Uganda, Uganda Telecom, UTL, Warid, Zain
Kenya: Record Profit for Safaricom
By Editor on October 29, 2006 · Leave a Comment
Mobile phone company Safaricom yesterday announced a Sh12.2 billion pre-tax profit, the largest ever in Kenya and East Africa.
And the announcement sparked calls, spearheaded by Nairobi Stock Exchange chairman Jimnah Mbaru for the sale of its shares to the public.
Mr Mbaru
East African Breweries, which has been the leading profit maker for decades, seems to have given way to “new economy” firms driven by technology.
The call for the shares sale was carried to the floor of the Nairobi Stock Exchange at Nation Centre, where President Kibaki yesterday launched automated trading.
This was days after it emerged the Government was yet to agree on the firm’s sale deal with Vodafone Plc. The UK firm owns a 40 per cent stake in Safaricom, but wants to increase it.
Yesterday, Finance minister Amos Kimunya, who earlier led a high-level government team at the Safaricom function, said at the NSE that he wanted to see the firm listed.
Safaricom profit for the year ended in March 2006 and released publicly seven months later due to technicalities, rose by 44.6 per cent from Sh8.4 billion the previous year.
The earnings equal 62.9 per cent of the profit before tax made by the country’s entire banking industry last year, or the total pre-tax profit made last year by Barclays, Standard Chartered, Kenya Commercial and Citibank combined.
Paradoxically, Safaricom and Celtel – the other mobile phone firm – have become some of the banks’ most important borrowers, further underscoring the growing supremacy of the service sector in Kenya.
The unquoted service firm overtook EABL, which recorded Sh8.5 billion pre-tax profit in the period ending June 30.
Mr Mbaru, in a separate interview, linked the unprecedented profit to renewed economic growth arising from good management of the national economy.
However, Celtel saw its half-year pre-tax profit to June 30 plunge to Sh63.5 million from Sh626.2 million during the same period last year.
Safaricom, which appears to have earlier recognised mobile telephony as a mass product, with a subscriber base above 4 million, derived most growth from airtime sales, especially due to the introduction of lower denomination credit cards.
From the introduction of Bamba 50, a Sh50 economy card, the company is now making Sh6 million a week in sales. Its turnover during the year rose by 29.9 per cent to Sh34.9 billion, from Sh26.9 billion the previous period.
However, sales from mobile phone handsets plunged to Sh393 million, from Sh540 million last year, partly due to falling prices “and the preference of some consumers to buy used or stolen phones and not from the official channels,” chief finance officer Les Baillie told investors yesterday.
And terming the profit a “fantastic job,” Information minister Mutahi Kagwe said Safaricom had demolished the myth that telecommunications is a dormant sector.
Source- http://allafrica.com
