Telkom board rejects R12 billion offer

The board of directors at Telkom is reported to have rejected a R12 billion offer for a 35% stake in the company from a consortium led by former CEO Sipho Maseko.

According to reports, the former CEO’s Afrifund Investments and Madagascar-based Axian Telecom submitted their bid in March, which also would require the South African government to dilute part of its 40.5% state from Telkom.

Though the conglomerate made an offer of R46 per share offer, which was a 20% premium on the R38 share price at the time for a controlling stake in the embattled telecommunications company, the Telkom board rejected the offer as they deemed it too low and not in the best interest of Telkom’s shareholders.

Trusted sources have revealed that discussions are still underway and that a revised offer, which is not materially different from the original, has been put on the table. To top it all off, MTN is also still considering its options with the group and is mulling another bid.

The MTN group is still quite cautious after a bid to buy 100% of Telkom fell through in July 2022 after competing network Rain proposed a merger between itself and Telkom.

MTN group corporate affairs chief Nompilo Morafo said that no offer for Telkom has been made. However, analysts believe that MTN is interested in Telkom’s fibre network Openserve.

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