Telkom South Africa tower unit offered for $330m

UPDATED: Telkom South Africa confirmed the sale of its tower unit Swiftnet for ZAR 6.75 billion (US$355 million) to infrastructure-focused personal fairness agency Actis, a transfer to pay down money owed and steadiness its books. 

In a inventory trade announcement, Telkom South Africa stated: “​​The discount of Telkom debt by means of utility of the disposal proceeds will strengthen Telkom’s steadiness sheet and allow Telkom to launch free-cash-flow for funding in Telkom’s core companies and deployment in pursuit of development alternatives.”

It added it has development plans for different models together with wholesale infrastructure supplier Openserve and Telkom Shopper, its fibre broadband supplier. 

Actis stated in a separate assertion, the deal was made to amass 100% shares in Swiftnet and its footprint of 4,000 websites throughout South Africa. It made the acuistion with backing from Royal Bafokeng Holdings,a soverign wealth fund. 

The corporate stated: “The deal permits Actis to spend money on a rising sector, with robust secular tailwinds and an rising want for tower densification pushed by rising web penetration and the transitions from 3G and 4G to 5G.”

The acquisition of Swiftnet aligns with Actis’ technique, because the unit has a “distinctive tower footprint” and is properly positioned to satisfy demand from MNOs seeking to join rural areas. 

This acquisition will mark Actis’ second purchase into telecom towers this yr following its acquisition of websites within the Western Balkans. The deal was for 1,800 macro towers in Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Montenegro.

The corporate additionally purchased South African fibre supplier Octotel in 2020.