The planned recapitalisation of Cell C, believed to involve the Buffet Consortium and other investors, has been finalised, though details are only expected to be made public next month, TechCentral has learnt.
Browsing: Jonathan Beare
The share price of Telkom tumbled on Monday morning while Blue Label Telecoms rose after MTN South Africa and Cell C announced they had signed a massively expanded roaming deal.
As speculation swirls that Telkom has a made a third approach to Cell C about a potential acquisition, the financially distressed mobile operator on Tuesday said it is making progress on a planned recapitalisation.
Telkom issued a cautionary notice to shareholders on Tuesday saying it is in discussions in relation to a possible acquisition – and the most likely target is Cell C.
Cell C has regularised its payments to MTN South Africa for network roaming and has coughed up almost R750-million between July and September.
Shares in Blue Label Telecoms enjoyed a rare upswing on Friday, a day after it issued a trading update that showed its core business continues to perform well despite the ongoing woes at Cell C.
From inception, no one has made an equity return from investing in Cell C. It’s doubtful whether Jonathan Beare and his Buffet Consortium will be any different.
The JSE warned on Tuesday that Blue Label Telecoms failed to submit its annual financial results on time and that if it fails to do so by month-end, its shares may be suspended from trading.
Net1 UEPS Technologies has become the second JSE-listed company, after Blue Label Telecoms, to delay publication of financial results because of the ongoing financial woes at Cell C.
Cell C has moved to justify its decision to terminate its wholesale fixed-LTE offering, saying customers of the service made up just 0.5% of its base but were using 20% of its data network capacity.