East African telecoms company Wananchi Group Holdings has secured a US$57.5m equity injection from a group of international investors.
US cable operator Liberty Global, Oppenheimer Funds and Sarona Asset Management have entered Wananchi’s capital….
East African telecoms company Wananchi Group Holdings has secured a US$57.5m equity injection from a group of international investors.
US cable operator Liberty Global, Oppenheimer Funds and Sarona Asset Management have entered Wananchi’s capital. Existing shareholders East Africa Capital Partners (EACP) and Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) also took part in this new round.
Moelis & Company advised Wananchi on the transaction.
Wananchi said that the new funding would support further deployment of its fibre infrastructure in Kenya, where it offers triple-play services to residential customers under the Zuku brand. It will also support the launch of DTH satellite PayTV in ten East African countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Somalia.
Bryce Fort, Managing Director at ECP said, “We believe Africa has tremendous growth potential in both the PayTV and broadband internet segments. Wananchi’s cable, DTH and programming platforms combined with its strong management make the company ideally suited to capitalize on this growth by capturing the surplus consumer demand.”
Wananchi Group also provides VSAT services and data solutions to corporations under the SimbaNeT brand.
Set up in 2007, Wananchi manages seven cable and broadband companies in Kenya and Tanzania.
