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Report claims Liquid Telecom also considering move for select Millicom assets
Liquid Telecom parent Econet is considering a $1 billion initial public offering in London next year.
This is according to sources cited in a Bloomberg report late last week, who said the African-focused telco may consider a secondary listing in Johannesburg as well.
The London float would value Econet at $8 billion; sources based this valuation on the company growing via the acquisition of more African operators.
With that in mind, Econet is also reportedly in talks to acquire some of Millicom’s African assets. The Luxembourg-based group has operations in Chad, Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania, but in recent years has reduced its exposure to some African countries in order to focus on its strongest markets.
Millicom sold out of the Democratic Republic of Congo in April 2016, and sold out of Senegal earlier this year.
According to Bloomberg, Econet would use the proceeds from an IPO to help fund further acquisitions.
Econet, which has operations in 17 African countries, has been expanding aggressively in recent years. Last year its Liquid Telecom arm agreed to acquire Tata’s South African operation, Neotel, for €390 million.
In 2015, the company raised $150 million to help fund the expansion of its fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP). That same year, Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa told reporters that he was considering a European IPO in 2016.
