{"id":38204,"date":"2013-05-20T17:04:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T15:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=38204"},"modified":"2013-05-21T09:13:48","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T07:13:48","slug":"vodacom-tight-lipped-over-neotel-rumour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/38204\/vodacom-tight-lipped-over-neotel-rumour\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom tight-lipped over Neotel rumour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vodacom<\/a> has neither denied nor confirmed industry speculation that it is in discussions with\u00a0Neotel<\/a>\u00a0to acquire the fixed line operator.<\/p>\n

When asked the question at the group’s results presentation on Monday,\u00a0Shameel Joosub<\/a>,Vodacom Group CEO said: “We look at all opportunities…we are actively looking for new markets to enter.” He said that the\u00a0company\u00a0could not comment specifically on market rumour.<\/p>\n

One industry source said that Vodacom, MTN<\/a> and\u00a0Dimension Data<\/a>\u00a0were all in discussions with Neotel to potentially acquire a controlling stake in the company. Dimension Data (through\u00a0Internet Solutions<\/a>), however, is rumoured to have bowed out.<\/p>\n

Another well placed industry source confirmed the acquisition rumours, saying that the discussions between Neotel and MTN, and Neotel and Vodacom are at an advanced stage.<\/p>\n

Neotel would provide operators like Vodacom and MTN \u00a0with a well-established fibre network, along with valuable frequency spectrum.<\/p>\n

Neotel\u2019s current shareholders are\u00a0Tata Communications<\/a>\u00a0(68.5%), Nexus Connection (19%) and Communitel (12.5%).<\/p>\n

Tight-lipped<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neotel said that it is not company policy to comment on market rumour and speculation. \u201cNeotel is experiencing good growth and will soon be announcing its results as well as the company direction for the next financial year,\u201d the company added.<\/p>\n

Nik Kershaw<\/a>, executive for investor relations at MTN Group, said that \u201cin line with internal corporate governance, as well as JSE requirements, MTN does not comment on market speculation\u201d.<\/p>\n

“Dimension Data\u2019s policy is that it does not respond to market rumour, speculation or hypothetical questions about the company or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries,” the IT giant said.<\/p>\n

More on Vodacom<\/h3>\n

Market pressure slows Vodacom revenue<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom, MTN courting Neotel purchase?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom expects data growth spurt<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom has neither denied nor confirmed industry speculation that it is in discussions to buy Neotel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[94,26,97,28,261,3403,2570,27],"class_list":["post-38204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-dimension-data","tag-headline","tag-internet-solutions","tag-mtn","tag-neotel","tag-shameel-joosub","tag-tata-communications","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38204"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38218,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38204\/revisions\/38218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}