Remember the deal from january last year that set Liquid Telecom as Africa’s largest terrestrial fibre network operator? As part of the deal, Altech, whose East African infrastructure assets Liquid acquired then, had received an 8.6% stake which they dispose of eventually when the option to do so came.
Altech has announced last week that they are offloading the Liquid Telecom stake to Econet Wireless, Liquid’s parent company. Econet is buying the shares for US $55 million.
The reason for exercising the option, according to the Altech’s announcement, is that they don’t consider the 8.6% in Liquid a core to their operation going forward. The cash will also be used to service some debts whose detail the company didn’t go into.
Altech is a subsidiary Allied Electronics (Altron) which also owns Bytes and Powertech. The disposal is subject to the approval of the Altron board.
Share
Home
3 comments
So Liquid is worth $0.64billion
Not necessarily. Deals like these are always done with a premium added to the real value. Also considering that this was an option, people always exercise an option when the conditions are favourable to them. so Altech saw it more valuable to sell the stake at 55 mlln than to hold on to the them. In Financial mathematics, its means the perceived present value of holding on to the stake was less than the 54mlln selling price.
I must say Liquid is preparing for the long(est) term investment ever. Fibre will rule this continent and surely they will reap plenty from connecting everyone everywhere.