As from January 2016, The goverment of Kenya through the treasury will be in negotiations with Telkom Kenya’s new majority shareholders,Helios Investments in an effort to increase GOK’s shareholding in Telkom Kenya to 40% from the current 30%.
The strategic move by the goverment is aimed at protecting both public interest and Telkom’s Kenyan employees once it gets a set seat on the board to influence some decisions.
The employees are are in fear that once Helios starts a restructuring plan,it could lead to massive job losses.The public on the other hand could see GOK cash on the potential gains of the company through dividends.
The 10% stake is around 12 Million shares but the value of the deal is still very confidential.
In 2007,France Telecom acquired a 51 percent stake in Telkom Kenya from Alcazar for an estimated KES 40 Billion.
France Telkom is exiting its Kenya operations after 8 years of making huge losses as it blamed Bad relations with the authorities and Safaricom’s market dominance.
Hellios Investments is entering into a very tricky hunting territory dominated by Safaricom whereby Airtel Kenya has been struggling.But looking at Helios’ past investment strategies,they made a total of over Ksh 44.1 Billion, quadrupling the Sh11 Billion it paid in December 2007 to acquire the 24.99 percent stake.
The market take the opportunity to wish Helios Partners Good luck in the market.
