ECONET Wireless Group (Econet)’s telecommunications infrastructure carrier Liquid Telecom is eyeing a listing on one of Europe’s lucrative stock exchanges in 2016.
Econet founder and executive chairman Strive Masiyiwa confirmed the development, saying the group had already appointed advisers for the potential listing of Liquid.
“We have received several unsolicited offers for Liquid, but we want it to remain an independent access provider for Internet in Africa. We are going to raise more capital in the market and strengthen its market leadership in this vital space,” Masiyiwa said.
This comes as Econet has received and repeatedly turned down multi-billion dollar offers for the telecommunications company.
Currently, Liquid Telecom is probably the largest operator of fibre and business satellite services on the African continent.
Liquid has been growing rapidly over the last few years fuelled by the demand for infrastructure to support broadband Internet on the African continent.
The company, which has so far built a fibre optic network that spans 15 African countries from South Africa all the way to the border of South Sudan in East Africa, now wants to move into West Africa. – Online
