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Johannesburg - Helios Towers Nigeria, the firm that bought Telkom's stake in Nigeria’s Multi-Links for $10m, said on Wednesday it does not expect to keep operating the company in the long term.
The Nigerian unit of Helios Towers Africa - which builds, buys and rents towers used by mobile operators - partly owned Multi-Links together with Telkom but blocked the South African operator’s attempts to offload its shareholding in the loss-making venture to a third party earlier this year.
“We wouldn’t become a network operator because we’ll end up competing with our customers which is something not to do,” Charles Green, chief executive of Helios Towers Africa, told a telecoms conference.
“So our ownership of the assets that came along in the debt equity swap is purely a matter of convenience. We will end up having another operator who operates the assets.”
Telkom, which originally paid $410m for Multi-Links, had decided to shut down the business, Green said.
Multi-Links is one of just a few CDMA operators in a market dominated by the rival GSM standard
“It has just been a financial transaction to allow Telkom SA a graceful exit from Nigeria,” Green said.
The Nigerian unit of Helios Towers Africa - which builds, buys and rents towers used by mobile operators - partly owned Multi-Links together with Telkom but blocked the South African operator’s attempts to offload its shareholding in the loss-making venture to a third party earlier this year.
“We wouldn’t become a network operator because we’ll end up competing with our customers which is something not to do,” Charles Green, chief executive of Helios Towers Africa, told a telecoms conference.
“So our ownership of the assets that came along in the debt equity swap is purely a matter of convenience. We will end up having another operator who operates the assets.”
Telkom, which originally paid $410m for Multi-Links, had decided to shut down the business, Green said.
Multi-Links is one of just a few CDMA operators in a market dominated by the rival GSM standard
“It has just been a financial transaction to allow Telkom SA a graceful exit from Nigeria,” Green said.
