There are three important takeaways from the Chasing the Sun rugby documentary series, all of which are relevant to South Africa’s mobile sector, says the Cell C CEO.
Cell C CEO Douglas Craigie Stevenson said on Thursday that the company plans to use both the Vodacom and MTN networks to provide cellular services to its customer base.
Cell C has begun the planned migration of its customers off its radio access network as it moves to shut down this infrastructure to save costs. But instead of the clients being migrated to MTN, the’re going to Vodacom.
Cell C has net debt, excluding leases, on its balance sheet (prior to a planned recapitalisation) of almost R10-billion, but it still wants to participate in South Africa’s upcoming spectrum auction.
Cell C has reported an interim net loss after tax for the six months to June 2020 of R7.5-billion, but said this was mainly the result of once-off costs and adjustments and that normalised earnings actually grew by 64%.
Ten years after it launched its first mobile offering in the form of 8ta, Telkom has surpassed Cell C to become South Africa’s third largest mobile operator by subscriber numbers.
Cell C’s largest shareholder, Blue Label Telecoms, is confident a recapitalisation of the mobile operator will be completed in the coming months and that this will put it on a new growth trajectory.
Financially distressed mobile operator Cell C expects to close 128 retail stores around the country, with 546 jobs on the line, as it moves to reduce costs and become a more sustainable business.
Cell C said on Tuesday that it is making “good progress” in what it calls a “complex recapitalisation” aimed at ensuring the financially troubled mobile operator survives the debt noose around its neck.
The Competition Commission on Thursday said it has given its conditional approval for an entity called Gatsby SPV to acquire “certain aspects” of Cell C.