Seacom, an undersea connectivity cable provider, plans to expand its business in East and West Africa through acquisitions – BMA has learnt.
Seacom sells internet data capacity on its networks to businesses, internet service providers, and mobile operators on a wholesale basis. With shareholders like Sanlam and Remgro, the company holds about 25% of the wholesale fibre market in South Africa.
Seacom’s group CEO, Alpheus Mangale, said the company has the funding to expand its plans. The infrastructure side of the business typically grows through large capital expenditure (capex) projects. Seacom received a US$207 million long-term loan package from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in June 2023, which included US$70 million from IFC’s funds, US$42.24 million from a group of institutional investors, and US$94.76 million from Nedbank and Mauritius Commercial Bank.
Mangale also said that the company plans to develop strategic infrastructure in strategic routes across Africa and grow via acquisition. Seacom has been making several investments in its quest to compete with Dimension Data and BCX in the enterprise market.
The group now comprises the traditional telecom infrastructure business and managed services for enterprise clients. Funding will mainly be needed for acquisitions, and the company expects to look at assets in the market in South Africa, East Africa, and parts of West Africa where it wants to grow.
In recent years, Seacom has steadily grown according to this strategy. The company completed the acquisition of Kenya-based fibre operator Hirani Telecom’s network in October 2021 and acquired certain infrastructure assets from Africell in Uganda early that year.
Seacom signed a deal in April 2022 to acquire EOH’s Network Solutions and Hymax divisions and agreed with British Telecom (BT) in August 2022 to extend its enterprise IT business.
