adminECONET Wireless Global’s Liquid Telecom is seeking a $150 million loan facility to help expand its international network.
According to a post on Global Capital, Liquid’s five-year financing deal is set to be launched by mid September.
“Standard Chartered Bank is leading and fully underwriting the deal. Other bank lenders have yet to be decided but Liquid is said to have interest from existing bank relationships and those looking at the region,” Global Capital said.
Liquid Telecom has been aggressively expanding its fibre network on the continent. In May, Liquid chief executive Nic Rudnick said the company intends to inject $200 million for the expansion of its fibre-optic cable network in the Sadc region over 18 months.
Liquid Telecom has built Africa’s largest single fibre network which spans more than 17,000km from Uganda to Cape Town. The expansion of its pan-African satellite business complements the fibre enabling Liquid Telecom to provide highspeed, cost-effective broadband services to more remote areas where it is neither commercially viable nor practical to lay fibre.
The $150 million facility for Liquid Telecom comes barely a month after Econet Wireless secured a financing facility of a similar amount from Africa Export and Import Bank (Afrexim bank) to expand its operations focusing on mobile banking services and solar energy projects.
The syndicated facility was arranged through a number of global financial institutions including the Southern African Trade and Development Bank and Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe. – BH24
Online Reporter