Liquid Telecom to take full control of Botswana subsidiary

Back in 2016, Liquid Telecom and the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) entered into a partnership. The deal came about because BPC higher-ups agreed to commercialize the fibre network that was embedded on some of its high voltage lines. There was a bidding process that was held for a partner and Liquid Telecom emerged as the winner.

The arrangement at the time was that BPC would lease out any excess fibre optics to Liquid. This would enable the Botswana Power Corporation to optimise the use of its network. On Liquid’s end of the deal, it would get the resources required to serve it’s customers’ network needs in the region. The partnership would run under the name Liquid Telecom Botswana with Liquid being the majority shareholder (57.5% stake).

In a report by The Voice, Liquid Telecom has been given the green light by Botswana’s Competition and Consumer Authority to acquire the 42.5% stake held by BPC.

A month ago Liquid Telecom directors alerted the Competition and Consumer Authority that they would want to acquire the stake held by BPC. The matter was then assessed by the Authority and they came to the conclusion that the two parties were not in direct competition. The Authority also went on to add that since Liquid hadn’t yet started its core operations in Botswana there would be no geographical overlaps.

On the competition aspect, the Authority didn’t see any reduction of competition because of the absence of product and geographical overlaps in the activities of the merging parties.

The Competition and Consumer Authority weighed public interest as well. The conclusion was that Liquid Telecom’s acquisition is expected to create jobs as well as Liquid improving the skills of its employees through leveraging its global enterprise.