MTN’s Investcom deal strengthens African footprint

MTN announced Thursday it had raised 6.3 billion rand in South Africa’s corporate debt market, the biggest capital raising yet by a corporate, as part of the funding of this acquisition. MTN said that between the bond issue and their bank facilities they had raised enough to fund the acquisition, reported to be 5.5 billion dollars.
 
"We are very excited about the investment, which has been wholly unconditional since Tuesday and we effectively own the company," an MTN spokesman said.
 
"Investcom, which was listed in Dubai, has a collection of operations in various jurisdictions across Africa and the purchase gives us a footprint that dovetails with ours," the spokesman added.
 
Quicker access due the existing licenses in all of the countries in which Investcom operates should enable MTN to gain a stronger foothold in Africa, a market South Africa’s cellphone operators are zoning in on more and more, due to the benefits of enormous untapped markets let down by the lack of telecommunications in the past.