Africa’s Liquid Telecom raises €700m
March 1, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Fast-growing African telco Liquid Telecom has raised 12.4 billion Rand (about €700 million) in a bond sale.
The company, backed by telecoms tycoon Strive Masiyiwa (who also sits on Netflix’s main board) and who heads up the Econet business, says it will use the fresh funds to refinance existing debt and expand its broadband business further in Africa.
The company has some 70,000 kms of fibre already laid and centred on existing HQ buildings in South Africa, Kenya and Rwanda.
Banks including JP Morgan and Standard Chartered looked after the bookrunning and the offer was 5.5 times oversubscribed according to Liquid Telecom’s CFO Kate Hennessy.
“The level of interest from high-quality investors has been unprecedented for an African issuer and reflects an excess of 220 investor orders,” she said. “The order book shows the confidence that investors have in the future growth strategy for the group.”