BERNARD MPOFU
COMESA’s Competition and Tariff Commission has raised the red flag over a proposed plan to merge the local unit of Pan-African telecoms Liquid Telecom and its Zambian operations, which is aimed at improving operating efficiencies.
Business Times has established that Liquid Telecom Zimbabwe and Liquid Telecom Zambia are considering merging into one entity which will be run by one chief executive.
The Internet Access Provider is one of the largest in the country and also provides payment solutions to financial institutions and retailers. Should the merger be approved, the entity would be one of the few with cross-border management.
It is also understood that the merger will also allow the unified company to make large bandwidth purchases from upstream suppliers thereby benefiting from discounts.
Competition Tariff Commission chief Ellen Ruparanganda told this paper that the commission was looking at the proposed merger adding that Comesa’s CTC had raised some issues over the matter.
“This merger has been brought to our attention but there are issues that have been raised by Comesa’s Competition and Tarriff Commission,” Ruparanganda said in a telephone interview.
Asked for further clarity, Ruparanganda requested for written questions and those questions were not responded to at the time of going to print.
Contacted for comment, Liquid Telecom Zimbabwe managing director Wellington Makamure said there was no such development before he requested for written questions. Questions sent to him were not responded to at the time of going to print.
Last year Liquid Telecom, a privately owned pan-African telecoms group, majority owned by Econet Global acquired South African communications network operator Neotel. The shareholders of Neotel –Tata Communications of India and minority shareholders led by Nexus Connexion (Nexus) – agreed for Liquid Telecom to acquire Neotel for ZAR 6,55bn.
Liquid Telecom is partnered with Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH), a South African investment group, which has committed to take a 30 percent equity stake in Neotel. Following the transaction Neotel’s enterprise operations officially rebranded to Liquid Telecom South Africa.
