Liquid expands footprint with East African assets acquisition

L.S.M Kabweza Avatar
Liquid Telecom

Liquid TelecomEconet Wireless owned fibre and satellite operator, Liquid Telecom, announced yesterday the acquisition of East African telecom assets from JSE listed Altech Group in a deal that will, according to the company, make it the largest terrestrial fibre operator on the continent. Altech will get an 8.6% stake in Liquid Telecom and 10% shareholder voting rights. In addition to the assets, Altech will however also subscribe a further US $16.5 million for the stake.

Reports on the deal explain Altech’s move to dispose of the East African assets as caused by continued challenges in the region in recent years. Altech, according to Tech Central,  “says the businesses have been affected negatively by the depreciating value of certain East African currencies, by network instability and reliability issues, as well as the loss of big telecoms clients choosing to build their own networks instead of relying on third-party suppliers.”

Assets acquired by Liquid in the deal include Altech’s 61% stake in Kenya Data Networks (KDN). KDN, operates the largest data and Internet backbone in East Africa via Microwave Radio, terrestrial fibre and Satellite providing wholesale infrastructure to the region.

Effectively Liquid now operates a fibre network spanning 9 countries; Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zambia, DRC, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

Source: Liquid, TechCentral.

10 comments

  1. Greg Chiponda

    big up to liquid, please dont forget zimbabwe .

  2. Time

    To me Liquid is one of the least socially responsibly companies at least here in Zimbabwe. They have an abundance of fibre and bandwidth now yet you see their subsidiaries or whatever you call them such as Econet and ZOL having ridiculous pricing. Imagine $13 for 125mb!…Thats insanity! And Don’t be too quick to defend Zol becuase they offer “unlimited” internet for $60….only the first gig gets priority. Imagine, in this day and age they actually think the average internet user is somehow going to manage with just a gig a month and then get drastically slowed down with the more they use?

    So to me, the end consumer, this expansion of liquid just seems like the already fat pockets of the directors will get fatter whilst we the little people still have to suffer with high prices that certainly don’t match the reliability of the services provided.

    1. Cde_Hero

      Econet and Liquid Telecoms or better still Strive Masiyiwa the main owner should be advised to follow Google’s ‘Be Less Evil’ Strategy. Strive Masiyiwa confesses that he is an ardent Christian by how he reconciles with his conscience and that the better part of his wealth is drawn from milking (overcharging) helpless people has never seized to astonish me.

  3. Tapiwa ✔

    Interesting to see the Econet group work with Altech again after their legal dust-up over a failed joint-venture (http://www.proshareng.com/news/singleNews.php?id=313).

    1. Chanyane

      My thoughts when I read the deal with Altech. I suppose this time since they have a 10% voting right, their aggression can be managed (but not eliminated since hostile takeovers by people with lower voting rights have been known to happen). Quite interesting to figure out why Altech think this is a good deal. Maybe they have grown to understand the econet is a giant that can fuel their growth in international markets, just as old money investors from a zim/rhodeisa banking group figured out that BancABC founders (I thing they were Hritage bank then) could create a footprint that was beyond the capacity of the old leadership.

  4. magneto

    Cape to Cairo with Fibre!!

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