South African telecoms group MTN has reportedly held exploratory talks over the past few months about a possible offer for smaller rival Telkom.
A final decision on a potential takeover, which would enable MTN to better compete with Vodacom, has not…
South African telecoms group MTN has reportedly held exploratory talks over the past few months about a possible offer for smaller rival Telkom.
A final decision on a potential takeover, which would enable MTN to better compete with Vodacom, has not been made, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter.
Vodacom, a subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone, is South Africa’s largest mobile operator and is currently in the process of acquiring local fixed-line telco Neotel.
Partly state-owned Telkom, which has a market cap of about US$3.4bn, is the country’s largest fixed-line operator but has been struggling to compete against Vodacom and MTN in the mobile market.
A recent report suggested that the telco was considering selling towers worth between US$500m and US$1bn to cut costs. At the time, Telkom declined to comment specifically on the rumours but said the company was “focused on the business of turning the company around”.
“We have a number of activities underway to review options and potential commercial opportunities across our assets, properties and infrastructure,” a spokesperson added.
Last March, Telkom unveiled details of a network sharing pact and roaming agreements with MTN, but the companies have yet to conclude discussions on the latter aspect of the deal.
MTN, which has operations in 21 countries across Africa and the Middle East, is currently valued at about US$33.3bn.
MTN and Telkom were not immediately available for comment.
