Altech, a subsidiary of Altron, plans to sell its Liquid Telecom stake, acquired in January 2013, to Econet Wireless, Liquid’s parent company.
The 8,6% stake will be sold to Econet for US$55m, giving Liquid an implied value of $640m.
Altech says it is exercising this option because the stake isn’t core to its business. Read: (Altech offloads East Africa to Liquid)
A year ago, Altech CEO Craig Venter said that the group intended holding onto the stake as a “strategic minority interest shareholding”.
The money from the deal, which is subject to approval from Altech’s board, will be used to reduce debt.
Altech is a subsidiary of Altron, which also owns Bytes and Powertech. Source: TechZim
Telecel Zim fails to renew licence
Zimbabwe’s second largest mobile operator, Telecel, faces an uncertain future after the operator failed to pay a US$137m operating licence renewal fee.
The operator’s 15-year licence expired in June 2013 and was renewed after it promised the Zimbabwean government that it would cede 51% ownership to black Zimbabweans, as per the country’s indigenisation law.
Egyptian-based Orascom owns 60% of Telecel Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean government has complained about Telecel not paying its licence renewal fee and not complying with the indigenisation law.
The company has more than 2,5m customers. Source: PC Advisor
Rwanda sets July for analogue switch-off
The Rwandan government will switch off analogue television transmissions completely by 31 July, according to the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (Rura).
Digital migration is set to begin this month after the initial December 2012 deadline from analogue to digital migration was postponed due to the lack of digital broadcasting converters needed by consumers.
The new deadline of 31 July has been set ahead of the International Telecommunication Union deadline of June 2015.
“Initially, the scarcity of digital TV converters had hampered the migration process, but with the commitment shown by their authorised vendors of set-top boxes with regard to importation and shipping, we have decided to permanently switch over to digital broadcasting by the end of July,” said Rura director-general Regis Gatarayiha. Source: All Africa
Zambia Sim registration delayed
The deadline for Zambia’s mobile phone users to register their Sim cards has been moved to 31 January 2014, the country’s minister of transport, works, supply and communications, Yamfwa Mukanga, has announced.
This comes despite the government saying it would not extend the 31 December 2013 deadline last month. It now says this is the “final deadline and no further extension will be considered”. Unregistered Sim cards will be deactivated after 31 January.
Mukanga also revealed that as of 30 December 2013, a total of 6,8m users had already registered their Sim cards. Source: TeleGeography
