Telkom secures Icasa approval for R6.75bn Swiftnet sale
The sale includes Swiftnet's portfolio of approximately 4,000 towers and masts.
This divestiture will free Telkom up for strategic transformation, allowing it to concentrate on core operations and unlock value from non-core assets.
"This transaction is a pivotal moment in Telkom's implementation of our data-led strategy under OneTelkom," stated Serame Taukobong, Telkom Group CEO.
“The sale will strengthen our balance sheet, reduce debt, and provide additional capital… this will enable us to focus our investment in next-generation technology infrastructure."
Solid performance under new strategy
Telkom’s recent interim results for the six months ended September 2024 showed early success of this strategy.
The partial SOE saw a 10% growth in mobile service revenue and a15.5% increase in fibre data revenue – with its monopoly legacy helping it maintain a market-leading fibre connectivity rate of 49.7%.
These gains helped it achieve a sustained positive free cash flow of R768m with its mobile subscriber base reaching 22.7 million.
We continue to make progress on the alignment of our asset portfolio and our disposal of non-core properties in support of our data-led growth.
“The strong performance of our core business, coupled with strategic initiatives like the Swiftnet transaction, demonstrates that our strategy is delivering the promised results to the market,” Taukobong commented.
“We are creating a focused and agile Telkom that can invest in growth areas while maintaining our position as South Africa's leading telecommunications infrastructure provider.”
Final steps
Competition Tribunal granted approval in September was granted subject to procurement and access-related conditions, enabling TowerCo to acquire Swiftnet.
With the Swiftnet acquisition, TowerCo will now be a major player leasing space on its infrastructure to customers as well as having a massive voice in the rollout of wireless in-building solutions that use enhanced mobile network connectivity.
Royal Bafokeng Holdings has a deep interest in ICT infrastructure rooted in its relationship with Liquid Intelligent Technologies when the latter acquired Neotel.
