Liquid Telecom has fended off unsolicited takeover bids and is preparing to make its European stock market debut next year.
"We have received several unsolicited offers for Liquid, but we want it to remain an independent access provider for Internet in Africa," said Strive Masiyiwa, founder of the company’s South African parent Econet Wireless, in a Financial Times report late last week. "We are going to raise more capital in [the] market and strengthen its market leadership in this vital space."
U.K.-based, Africa-focused Liquid Telecom operates an 18,000-kilometre terrestrial fibre network spanning 15 African markets, including Botswana, the DRC, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe, among others.
In August, Liquid launched Hai, a new retail brand through wh ich it will provide retail and business Internet services across its footprint. The company also recently established a business services deal with South Africa-based MTN.
Earlier this year, the company raised $150 million to help it expand its fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network; it aims to provide 100-Mbps broadband coverage to 100,000 premises by the end of this year.
Masiyiwa told the FT on Friday that he wants to raise extra money to fund the 20,000-kilometre expansion of Liquid’s fibre network into west Africa, augmenting its existing satellite footprint there.
"The level of system reliability required to offer service to the likes of Netflix is very high," he said in the report. "It will however require much more investment, and that is why we are now looking at a return to the capital markets."
Econet has not disclosed which advisors it has appointed for the listing, and it has not decided on which European stock exchange Liquid will float.
