{"id":836833,"date":"2025-09-04T11:24:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=836833"},"modified":"2025-09-04T11:25:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:25:00","slug":"mtn-and-telkom-spark-acquisition-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/836833\/mtn-and-telkom-spark-acquisition-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN and Telkom spark acquisition talks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/quote\/MTN:SJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MTN Group<\/a>, Africa\u2019s largest wireless carrier, is considering reviving talks to acquire smaller South African rival Telkom SA, according to people familiar with the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Telkom has also been talking to advisers about its options if a new takeover bid is launched, said the people, who asked not to be identified because information is still private. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two companies could begin negotiations before the end of the year, though there\u2019s no guarantee that these talks would lead to a deal, they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Representatives for MTN and Telkom declined to comment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MTN\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-10-19\/mtn-walks-away-from-talks-to-buy-south-africa-s-telkom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">walked away<\/a>\u00a0from early negotiations to buy Telkom in 2022 after the two disagreed on exclusivity and amid concerns about winning antitrust approval for a deal that would have created South Africa\u2019s dominant mobile phone operator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Telkom\u2019s shares have risen more than 40% since those earlier talks were called off and the company is valued at about R25 billion South African currently.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Telkom shares jumped as much as 16% to R56.90 in Johannesburg, the biggest intraday gain since July 2022. MTN fell 0.8% to R138.70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rival Vodacom Group secured a deal to take a stake in Remgro\u2019s fiber business after years of negotiations with South Africa\u2019s competition authorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The decision gave MTN confidence that it could potentially also get approval to combine with Telkom, said the people.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa\u2019s government is pushing to secure better connectivity for the country, and boost investment in rural areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The telecommunications industry has argued that this is only commercially viable if infrastructure isn\u2019t duplicated.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To bolster its deals capacity, MTN has placed its Chief Financial Officer Tsholofelo Molefe &#8211; who is also a former Telkom executive &#8211; at the head of its mergers and acquisitions unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A combination with Telkom could close the gap with rival Vodacom, South Africa\u2019s market leader controlled by the UK\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/quote\/VOD:LN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Vodafone Group Plc<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MTN Group, Africa\u2019s largest wireless carrier, is considering reviving talks to acquire smaller South African rival Telkom SA, according to people familiar with the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":811767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[28,65],"class_list":["post-836833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-mtn","tag-telkom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836833","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=836833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836834,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836833\/revisions\/836834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}