MTN Seeks to Cash In on IPO of Africa's Biggest Tower Company
MTN Group Ltd. could cash in from an initial public offering of Africa’s largest telecommunication-towers company by selling a stake valued by the wireless carrier at about 27 billion rand ($2.3 billion).
IHS Towers, of which Johannesburg-based MTN owns about 29 percent, is planning an IPO in New York, people familiar with the matter said last year. If the tower operator goes ahead with the share sale and the valuation is appropriate, MTN will look to sell out, Chief Financial Officer Ralph Mupita said in an interview.
“It is not strategic to lock up so much capital,” the CFO said. While MTN’s stake in IHS Towers is important, it's been earmarked by the company as an asset for sale, he said.
Nigeria's Sahara Revives IPO Plan as It Looks to Pump More Oil
Nigerian energy conglomerate Sahara Group Ltd. said it revived plans for a share-sale as it looks to increase oil production four-fold to 100,000 barrels per day.
Lagos-based Sahara mulled an initial public offering in the Nigerian commercial capital and London in 2015, before falling crude prices forced it to backtrack.
“The IPO is now back on the table,” Tonye Cole, Sahara’s executive director and co-founder, said in an interview in Kigali, Rwanda. “After we made the announcement then, the entire market crashed, oil prices went down, and so we put the plans on hold.”
Cole didn’t provide a timeframe or say how much he wanted to raise. In 2015, he said he would look to sell as much as 25 percent of Sahara for $600 million.
Helios Towers ditches 2 billion pound London IPO plan
Helios Towers has ditched its plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in London which was expected to value the business at about 2 billion pounds ($2.8 billion), the African mobile networks operator said on Thursday.
Helios said it had received “considerable interest” from institutional investors who were supportive of its business plan and growth prospects but its shareholders had decided to withdraw the planned listing. No reason was given.
Helios is owned by telecom firms Millicom and Bharti Airtel and hedge funds including Albright Capital Management and Soros Fund Management, which owns more than 20 percent.
TLcom Capital invests $5M in Nigerian data analytics firm Terragon Group
The African venture firm TLcom Capital is betting on Africa’s data analytics markets with a $5 million investment in Nigerian-based Terragon Group, the developer of a software analytics service for customer acquisition.
TLcom’s commitment is the second from its $40 million TIDE Africa Fund for early and growth-stage digital companies.
“We liked…that the business has matured into a new platform with very strong technology behind it,” said TLcom Capital Partner, Ido Sum. “It allows the largest advertisers and brands…to reach consumers in a way they couldn’t do before.”
Located in Lagos, Terragon’s software services give its clients — primarily telecommunications and financial services companies — data on Africa’s growing consumer markets.
Teleology to buy Nigeria's 9mobile
Teleology Holdings has agreed to buy 9mobile, Nigeria’s fourth largest telecoms provider, the investment firm said on Thursday.
9mobile, formerly Etisalat Nigeria, took out a $1.2 billion syndicated loan from 13 local banks in 2013 but failed to make repayments last year. Under the stewardship of its lenders, it has changed its board, management and name and is now up for sale.
Teleology said it had made a $50 million deposit to meet conditions for the acquisition and had partnered with East Africa’s largest telecoms operator Safaricom to transform debt-laden 9mobile.
Teleology was set up by 12 telecoms industry veterans led by ex-MTN Nigeria executive Adrian Wood.
A merger of two Nigerian e-commerce players is the latest bid to win Africa's largest market
Two months after it was acquired by Zinox Technologies, Konga, a major e-commerce player in Nigeria, is taking another step in its evolution.
The six-year old company will merge with Yudala, the e-commerce company affiliated with Zinox Technologies. Both companies will operate using Konga’s brand identity from May 1. Even though Zinox initially said it would not consider a merger at the time it acquired Konga, the company now says it will benefit more from combining the strengths of both companies rather than having them operate as competitors.
While Konga will retain its model as an online marketplace which allows merchants list items for sale, it will return to operating warehouses after closures in 2016, according to Zinox spokesman Gideon Ayogu.
Sahel Capital Announces Investment in Coscharis Farms
Sahel Capital, fund managers for the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (“FAFIN”), and Coscharis Group, a Nigerian Conglomerate with interests across several sectors of the Nigerian economy, are pleased to announce that definitive agreements have been executed for an investment in Coscharis Farms Limited, a subsidiary of Coscharis Group. Coscharis Farms is an integrated rice processor that started operations in 2014 to meet part of the estimated 5.9 million MT annual rice demand in Nigeria. Coscharis Farms currently has 2,500ha of land for rice cultivation, and is in the process of installing a 40,000 MT per year rice mill and an irrigation system on its farm to enable multi‐cycle rice cultivation. Both are expected to be completed by 4Q18. Coscharis Farms also plans to incorporate a robust farmer out‐grower development program within Ayamelum, Anambra State, and neighbouring communities to reach 2,000 farmers that could provide rice paddy to its mill when completed.
African private equity association announces new board leaders
The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) says that ‘Tokunboh Ishmael, co-founder and managing director at Alitheia Capital, will take over the chair of the association’s board of directors, and Ziad Oueslati, managing director and co-founding partner at AfricInvest Group is taking over the role of vice chair.
Ishmael brings a wealth of experience from having co-founded Alitheia Capital, an investment management and advisory firm focused on channeling private equity investments into businesses and real estate assets to enhance access to finance, energy and housing for the excluded at the base of the economic pyramid.
44 African Nations Sign On To Single African Market
Intra-African trade is on the rise, and it could receive a powerful boost from the agreement by 44 African countries at a summit of the African Union (AU) in Kigali, Rwanda, last month to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The agreement to cut tariffs and promote economic integration bucked the protectionist trend developing in other parts of the world. It was the first step toward what could become a pan-African single market of about 1.2 billion people.
The parliaments of 22 of the countries must ratify the agreement before the trade deal comes into effect. AU officials say they are confident this will happen by the end of 2018.
