Seacom has formally completed its acquisition of Fibre Telecommunications after receiving the necessary approval of the Competition Commission.
TechCentral reported in November that FibreCo shareholders had agreed to the sale to Seacom. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
Seacom said at the time that the deal represented a “milestone” in its “vision to expand its African footprint through the consolidation of fibre assets”.
“Seacom believes this is necessary for the evolution of the market, particularly as we move into the 5G environment with its requirement for pervasive fibre networks,” it said.
Seacom, which built the first subsea fibre broadband cable along Africa’s east coast to Europe, connects South Africa to the east coast of Africa, India and Europe, while FibreCo connects over 60 points of presence across South Africa, including data centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London.
FibreCo’s network also connects to the Seacom subsea cable system, which lands in Mtunzini, north of Durban, and to the Wacs cable, which lands at Yzerfontein on the west coast. This infrastructure provides “fully redundant, high-speed ring protection for diversity around the African continent”, Seacom said.
“The FibreCo acquisition significantly strengthens Seacom’s operations in South Africa by creating a platform for the expansion of its business services,” it added. “It enables the delivery of high-speed Internet connectivity and cloud products into smaller cities and towns across the country, which have typically been underserviced.”
Joint venture
Founded nine years ago, FibreCo was jointly established by businessman Andile Ngcaba’s Convergence Partners, Dimension Data’s Internet Solutions and mobile operator Cell C.
Seacom CEO Byron Clatterbuck said the company planned to “light up” FibreCo’s national infrastructure, allowing Seacom to “deliver affordable, high speed-Internet connectivity and cloud services to bandwidth-starved cities and towns along our new fibre routes”.
Seacom’s shareholders are South African businesses Remgro (30%), Sanlam (15%), Convergence Partners (15%), Kenya’s Aga Khan Foundation (30%) and founder Brian Herlihy (10%). — © 2019 NewsCentral Media