The Tanzanian government is in talks with India’s Bharti Airtel to buy the remaining 35% it does not already own in Tanzania Telecommunications Company (TTCL), TelecomFinance has confirmed.
The discussions are ongoing, communication minister Makame…
The Tanzanian government is in talks with India’s Bharti Airtel to buy the remaining 35% it does not already own in Tanzania Telecommunications Company (TTCL), TelecomFinance has confirmed.
The discussions are ongoing, communication minister Makame Mbarawa told local reporters over the weekend. Neither the timeframe for the acquisition nor the stake value has been disclosed.
More than three years ago, Tanzanian authorities had engaged in talks to fully acquire TTCL, which mainly provides fixed-line services but also some mobile services, to help turn the company around.
The 35% stake was at the time still owned by Kuwait’s Zain, which subsequently sold the asset to Bharti as part of the major US$10.7bn African deal between the two companies in June 2010.
Before that, in 2009, Tanzanian MPs called on the government to bail out the telecoms incumbent, which needed some US$150m of fresh funds, representing nearly twice its US$80m debt level.
Four years later, the government is still looking “to make TTCL tick”, Mbarawa was quoted as saying. An independent agency has been tasked with recruiting a CTO and a CMO for the company, according to Tanzania Daily News.
Tanzania and Bharti Airtel are also both shareholders in mobile operator Airtel Tanzania, split between 40% held by the government and the remaining 60% owned by the Indian giant.