{"id":48640,"date":"2013-10-30T15:24:24","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T13:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=48640"},"modified":"2013-10-30T15:26:31","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T13:26:31","slug":"vodacom-neotel-deal-six-months-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/48640\/vodacom-neotel-deal-six-months-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom-Neotel deal six months away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunil Joshi<\/a>, MD & CEO of Neotel says that a deal between the fixed line operator and Vodacom could be concluded in six months.<\/p>\n

Vodacom<\/a>\u00a0and the shareholders of\u00a0Neotel<\/a>\u00a0confirmed on 30 September,\u00a0that they had entered into exclusive discussions regarding a potential acquisition of 100% of the shares of Neotel by Vodacom SA.<\/p>\n

In announcing the group’s results\u00a0for the half year period ended September 2013, in Midrand, Joshi said that due diligence is currently under way with the deal is possibly six months away from being concluded.<\/p>\n

Joshi said that a combined entity would enable\u00a0incremental\u00a0funding for a stronger foothold in the South\u00a0African\u00a0landscape for Neotel.<\/p>\n

“A combined entity would be better-placed to offer an expanded product range and level of increased funding and, as a consequence, enhanced customer choice as well, while enabling Neotel to extend its footprint in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

A deal between\u00a0Vodacom<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Neotel<\/a>\u00a0could be valued at as much as R10 billion rand ($994 million) according to a report in Bloomberg, citing a person close to the\u00a0negotiations.<\/p>\n

In a Q2 FY14 Investor Fact Sheet, Neotel’s majority shareholder\u00a0Tata Communications put Neotel’s\u00a0net debt \u00a0at R4.946 billion as at September 30, 2013, up from\u00a0 R4.918 billion in June 2013.<\/p>\n

Gross debt\u00a0amounted\u00a0to R5,09 billion, from\u00a0\u00a0R5.1 billion before.<\/p>\n

Vodacom<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking about the transaction, Vodacom Group CEO\u00a0Shameel Joosub<\/a>\u00a0has said\u00a0\u201cThere are a number of important steps that we still need to complete in order to conclude the transaction. \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the deal is implemented, Vodacom intends to put significant investment into the combined entity to provide high-speed fixed connectivity to many more businesses and consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy further building on the capabilities within Neotel, we would also aim to develop entirely new services such as fibre to the home and business. Neotel has access to over 15,000km of fibre-optic cable, including 8,000km of metro fibre in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban,\u201d Joosub said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpectrum is also an important consideration as the combined entity could use this resource more efficiently, and in doing this we can keep pace with South Africa\u2019s rapidly growing demand for mobile data. This transaction is all about providing greater choice and better infrastructure for South Africa\u2019s businesses and consumers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Neotel sees half year revenue soar<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Neotel, Vodacom a R10 billion deal?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom, Neotel confirm talks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Neotel reaches earnings milestone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Vodacom CEO\u2019s strategy explains Neotel acquisition plans<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Why buy Neotel?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunil Joshi, MD & CEO of Neotel says that a deal between the fixed line operator and Vodacom could be concluded in six months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":43700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,261,3403,2898,2570],"class_list":["post-48640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-neotel","tag-shameel-joosub","tag-sunil-joshi","tag-tata-communications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48640","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48640"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48650,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48640\/revisions\/48650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}