Orange has sold its 70% stake in Telkom Kenya to Helios Investment Partners for an undisclosed sum, it announced on Monday.
The telco has been working on an exit from the Kenyan market for some time having struggled to make money there.
In addition to being the fixed-line incumbent, Telkom Kenya is the country’s third largest mobile operator behind Safaricom and Bharti’s Airtel. It had 4 million mobile customers as of the end of June, according to the regulator’s figures, Orange said.
The Kenyan government, which holds the remaining 30% of Telkom Kenya, revealed a couple of months ago that Orange and Helios were holding talks with regard to the asset. At that stage, it was unclear how big a stake in Telkom Kenya the investment firm would be wiling to acquire; local news outlet Business Daily suggested that Orange might be left with a small stake in the company, but that now appears not to be the case.
Orange said the agreement is subject to the approval of the relevant authorities, but did not suggest a timeframe for completion of the deal.
This is not the first time a potential sale of Telkom Kenya has made the news.
Orange reportedly brokered a deal to offload the asset to Vietnam’s Viettel last year, but that deal fell apart due to the government’s alleged unwillingness to acquiesce to the would-be buyer’s demands, which included licence extensions and the acquisition of part of the state’s stake in the telco.
