India’s Essar group has exited its last telecoms business with the closure of the US$120 million sale of yuMobile.
Essar Global Fund Ltd (EGFL) agreed to sell its Kenyan mobile business to local rivals Safaricom and Bharti Airtel last year. Safaricom bought yuMobile’s network, IT and office infrastructure, while Bharti Airtel acquired its subscriber base of 2.55 million.
On Thursday Essar said that, having received regulatory approvals for the deal, it has successfully migrated yuMobile’s customers to Airtel, allowing it to conclude the transaction.
As part of the deal, close to 90% of yuMobile’s employees have moved to either Bharti or Safaricom.
"We are delighted to have completed this complex transaction and we are thankful to the Kenyan Government and the various regulators for their support in facilitating the transaction," said yuMobile CEO Madhur Taneja, in a statement.
"This was a very challenging transaction and we are of the opinion that the resulting consolidation in the Kenyan mobile telecommunications market will better serve the long term interests of all customers," added Firdhose Coovadia, a board member of Essar Capital, fund managers of EGFL.
"The divestment will serve to increase the focus of EGFL on maximising the value of its energy, metals and mining, and infrastructure sector portfolio investments and continue to divest from its non-core portfolio investments," he added.
Indeed, the sale of the Kenyan business marks the end of EGFL’s participation in the telecoms space.
In recent years the company has monetised $6 billion worth of telecoms assets. Chief among these was the $5.2 billion sale of its 33% stake in Indian mobile operator Vodafone Essar in 2011, but it also parted company with its towers business in 2010 and Aegis last year.
