{"id":99546,"date":"2015-09-28T15:16:22","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T13:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=99546"},"modified":"2015-09-28T15:16:59","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T13:16:59","slug":"cell-c-valued-at-r22-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/99546\/cell-c-valued-at-r22-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Cell C valued at R22 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s third largest mobile operator, Cell C, is valued at R22 billion rand ($1.6 billion) by its owners, according to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-09-28\/telkom-said-to-seek-less-than-1-6-billion-cell-c-asking-price-if3wfved\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Telkom, the country&#8217;s fourth largest mobile operator, has reportedly shown interest in acquiring Cell C and is prepared to pay no more than R18 billion ($1.3 billion), Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Dubai-based Oger Telecom noted in March 2015 that it was looking to sell its 75% stake in Cell C. It has since put a price-tag on the company, which reportedly includes R14 billion of debt.<\/p>\n<p>Telkom on Monday (28 September) warned shareholders that it \u201cis in discussions\u201d which may have a material effect on its share price.<\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s CEO Sipho Maseko recently <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/95723\/telkom-interested-in-buying-cell-c-report\/\">expressed some interest<\/a><\/strong> in buying Cell C, calling it an \u201cinteresting proposition\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the right price, I\u2019m a buyer,\u201d Maseko said.<\/p>\n<p>Last month <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/business\/technology\/2015\/08\/26\/buyers-ringing-up-cell-c-says-75-owner\" target=\"_blank\">Business Day<\/a> reported that six groups had displayed interest in acquiring the operator.<\/p>\n<p>The business publication cited a direct quote from Oger Telecom\u2019s chief legal officer and deputy CEO, Mazen Abou Chakra.<\/p>\n<p>Cell C chief executive Jose dos Santos, added weight to the rumours last week, saying that the company has engaged with its competitors over a potential acquisition. Nothing material has come of the discussions, however, Dos Santos said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople talk all the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the discussions have not only been with local players, but international players too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cell C profitable<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dos Santos said that the company is making a month-on-month profit, and has been for several quarters already.<\/p>\n<p>He said that the company now has just shy of 22 million customers. This is compared to MTN SA, which has a subscriber base of 28.5 million, and Vodacom, with 31.4 million active users.<\/p>\n<p>Telkom&#8217;s mobile customer base is at a modest 2.2 million.<\/p>\n<p>Vodacom, which has networks in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Lesotho, has a market cap at approximately R203.8 billion.<\/p>\n<p>MTN, meanwhile, has a market cap exceeding R326.6 billion, serving 230 million customers in 21 <span class=\"st\">countries in Africa and the Middle East<\/span>.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on Telkom and Cell C<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/99492\/telkom-discussions-fuels-cell-c-acquisition-rumour\/\" target=\"_blank\">Telkom \u2018discussions\u2019 fuel Cell C acquisition rumour<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/99196\/we-are-profitable-cell-c-ceo\/\">We are profitable: Cell C CEO<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/95723\/telkom-interested-in-buying-cell-c-report\/\">Telkom interested in buying Cell C: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s third largest mobile operator, Cell C, is valued at R22 billion rand ($1.6 billion) by its owners, according to a Bloomberg report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":81945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[42,26,65],"class_list":["post-99546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-telkom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99546","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=99546"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99562,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99546\/revisions\/99562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}