MTN Group is considering renewing talks, previously abandoned, to acquire rival Telkom, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.
“The two companies could begin negotiations before the end of the year, though there’s no guarantee that these talks would lead to a deal,” the newswire reported (paywall).
It provided no further details about the possible renewed discussions between the two South African telecommunications giants.
Telkom Group CEO Serame Taukobong has previously dismissed speculation that the acquisition by Vodacom of a 30% co-controlling stake in fibre operator Maziv – the parent of Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa – could lead to the sale of a stake in Telkom’s Openserve unit.
He said Openserve was not for sale, despite Telkom’s decision in 2023 to work with Bank of America to gauge interest in the business from potential investors and strategic partners.
Openserve operates about 170 000km of fibre networks across South Africa and is the country’s second largest home fibre broadband provider after Vumatel.
The last time MTN hinted that it was still interested in a transaction to buy all of Telkom was in June 2023, when it said it could be keen to return to earlier discussions to buy the partially state-owned telecoms operator.
Walked away
MTN walked away from early stage talks in 2022 about a possible transaction after Telkom’s board decided to entertain an offer from a much smaller rival, wireless broadband upstart Rain. The Rain talks never led anywhere.
MTN had made an offer to buy Telkom in July 2022 and said a year later, in June 2023, that it “would have been good for shareholders of both companies and broader stakeholders”.
Any discussions to acquire Telkom could be complicated by the government’s 40.5% shareholding in the company. Without government support, which was never tacitly provided the last time the companies entered into talks, the deal would be difficult to get over the line.
Read: After years of flirting, MTN is in talks to buy Telkom
Telkom shares spiked higher on the news of MTN’s potential renewed interest a deal and were up more 13% at R55.56 at the market close in Johannesburg.
Asked for comment on the report, a Telkom spokesman said the company “cannot comment on speculation”. MTN said the same. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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