Picture: AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI
MTN Group is looking to raise as much as R60bn from an extended
asset-sale plan, with stakes in a towers business and the carrier’s
Nigerian unit among those earmarked for sale.
Africa’s biggest mobile phone company has generated about R14bn since implementing a strategy to
offload non-essential businesses in March, and is ready to step up the process, MTN said in an e-mailed response to questions on Thursday.
IHS Holdings, the continent’s largest operator of wireless towers, is on the list and the Johannesburg-based company valued its stake in the firm at R23bn in June, a spokesperson said.
MTN is looking to reduce majority ownership of its business in Nigeria, the carrier’s biggest and most profitable market, after the country’s attorney-general dropped a claim for $2bn (R29bn) in back taxes. About 14% of the Lagos-listed operation could be sold, MTN said, reducing the stake to about 65%.
Africa’s biggest mobile phone company has generated about R14bn since implementing a strategy to
offload non-essential businesses in March, and is ready to step up the process, MTN said in an e-mailed response to questions on Thursday.
IHS Holdings, the continent’s largest operator of wireless towers, is on the list and the Johannesburg-based company valued its stake in the firm at R23bn in June, a spokesperson said.
MTN is looking to reduce majority ownership of its business in Nigeria, the carrier’s biggest and most profitable market, after the country’s attorney-general dropped a claim for $2bn (R29bn) in back taxes. About 14% of the Lagos-listed operation could be sold, MTN said, reducing the stake to about 65%.
MTN
is raising money to pay down debt and simplify a portfolio of telecom
businesses that spreads across Africa and the Middle East. The company
is focusing investment on its main markets — including $1.6bn for
Nigeria announced on Wednesday — and is “seriously investigating” the
prospect of taking part in a planned privatisation of Ethiopia’s phone
monopoly, according to the spokesperson.
IHS is reviving plans for an initial public offering, people with knowledge of the situation said in 2019, after scrapping a US share sale in 2018. The Mauritius-based company declined to comment.
MTN has sold minority stakes in two tower joint ventures for $523m, redeemed preference shares in Nigeria and offloaded e-commerce businesses such as booking site Travelstart since starting the sale programme in 2019.
Bloomberg
IHS is reviving plans for an initial public offering, people with knowledge of the situation said in 2019, after scrapping a US share sale in 2018. The Mauritius-based company declined to comment.
MTN has sold minority stakes in two tower joint ventures for $523m, redeemed preference shares in Nigeria and offloaded e-commerce businesses such as booking site Travelstart since starting the sale programme in 2019.
Bloomberg
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