{"id":502429,"date":"2021-07-01T07:41:59","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T05:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=502429"},"modified":"2021-07-01T07:41:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T05:41:59","slug":"rmb-investec-in-talks-with-cell-c-over-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/502429\/rmb-investec-in-talks-with-cell-c-over-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"RMB, Investec in talks with Cell C over funds"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cell C Pty Ltd is in advanced talks with FirstRand Ltd.\u2019s unit Rand Merchant Bank and Investec Ltd. to provide the South African wireless carrier with about R4 billion ($280 million) of fresh capital, according to people familiar with the matter.The country\u2019s fourth-largest mobile-phone provider, partly owned by Johannesburg-listed Blue Label Telecoms<\/span> Ltd, is nearing the end of a recapitalization plan to pay down debt, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is still private.<\/p>\n

Deals have been concluded with former creditors to pave the way for new funding, they said.<\/p>\n

Cell C has been struggling under a debt burden of about R10 billion, while its customer growth has come under pressure due to South Africa\u2019s weak economic outlook and the dominance of two larger companies, MTN Group Ltd. and Vodacom Group Ltd.<\/p>\n

Cell C said its recapitalization was in progress and at a sensitive stage, with details to follow when it is finalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cRMB can confirm that we are in discussions with Cell C and its shareholders regarding financing,\u201d a representative for the lender said. \u201cClient confidentiality precludes us from sharing any details.\u201d Investec declined to comment.<\/p>\n

A previous plan for no. 3 wireless operator Telkom SA SOC Ltd to combine its mobile operations with that of Cell C fell apart in 2019 and the recapitalization was approved last year. Cell C previously restructured its finances in 2016, when Blue Label took a 45% stake.<\/p>\n

Blue Label\u2019s shares are up 9.3% this year and traded 0.2% lower at the close in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: RMB, Mass retrenchments as Cell C insists turnaround strategy is bearing fruit<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cell C Pty Ltd is in advanced talks with FirstRand Ltd.\u2019s unit Rand Merchant Bank and Investec Ltd. to provide the South African wireless carrier with about R4 billion ($280 million) of fresh capital, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":492431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[42,26,1498,2214],"class_list":["post-502429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-investec","tag-rmb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502429","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":502441,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502429\/revisions\/502441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}