{"id":43379,"date":"2013-07-31T17:05:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T15:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=43379"},"modified":"2013-08-01T09:06:45","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T07:06:45","slug":"vodacom-mtn-in-race-for-madagascar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/43379\/vodacom-mtn-in-race-for-madagascar\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom, MTN in race for Madagascar?"},"content":{"rendered":"

South African operators, Vodacom Group<\/a> and MTN Group<\/a> are believed to have expressed interest in expanding into Madagascar through an acquisition of Telecom Malagasy SA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is according to Bloomberg, citing two people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

The operators are understood to be interested in acquiring closely-held Telma, to diversify sources of revenue, Bloomberg’s sources said, who asked not to be identified.<\/p>\n

Telma, based in Antananarivo, is seeking a buyer, sources confirmed in February. It is valued at about $500 million, one of the people said at the time, and reported by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

Both Vodacom and MTN have expressed an interest to expand into other markets, particularly as South Africa’s mobile market has begun to saturate and\u00a0domestic voice service revenue declines.<\/p>\n

In July, while Vodacom reported a\u00a05.3% rise in active customers to 51.5 million as international operations continued to expand their coverage, its domestic market was less positive.<\/p>\n

Vodacom noted that its local customer numbers declined 2.3% year-on-year to 29.282 million, from 29.971 million\u00a0in 2012.\u00a0On a quarterly basis, customer numbers improved 0.3% to 29.190 million.<\/p>\n

MTN\u2019s South Africa business reported a net loss of 470,000 customers in its quarterly update for the period ending 31 March.<\/p>\n

Vodacom, which is 65% owned by Vodafone Group, is planning to expand into three additional countries by the end of the 2014, CEO Shameel Joosub<\/a> told Bloomberg in May.<\/p>\n

Joosub said, however, that the group is only targeting countries in Africa with a population exceeding 10 million, with no \u2018major\u2019 operators present, a high GDP, and a low penetration rate (mobile).<\/p>\n

Telma competes with India based operator Bharti Airtel<\/a> and Orange SA<\/a> in Madagascar and has more than 1.8 million mobile subscribers, or 30% of the market,\u00a0according to a 2011 corporate review on its website.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe explore investment opportunities on a regular basis,\u201d Vodacom told BusinessTech, while\u00a0MTN declined to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n

Madagascar has a population of more than 22 million. Its $10 billion economy is forecast to expand 2.6% in 2013, compared with 1.9% in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n

Madagascar had 38 wireless subscribers per 100 people in 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

The news service, however, notes that\u00a0Madagascar has been in political crisis since 2009 when Andry Rajoelina, a 39-year-old former nightclub DJ, seized power from President Marc Ravalomanana with the help of the Indian Ocean island nation\u2019s army.<\/p>\n

The country is scheduled to hold elections on August 23.<\/p>\n

More on Vodacom and MTN<\/h3>\n

MTN primed for Ethiopia growth<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom SA customers flattening out<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom keen on acquisitions, but where?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom not desperate for acquisitions<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve cracked Africa model: Vodacom<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN loses out on Myanmar licence<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom Group and MTN Group are believed to have expressed interest in expanding into Madagascar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1660,26,28,6406,6404,6405,27],"class_list":["post-43379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-bharti-airtel","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-orange-sa","tag-telecom-malagasy-sa","tag-telma","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43379","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=43379"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43390,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43379\/revisions\/43390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}