'TelOne, NetOne to be offloaded as a single package'

By FinX | 19 Mar 2019 at 23:28hrs
NetOne, TelOne
The partial privatisation of two state-owned enterprises NetOne and TelOne, which Finance minister Mthuli Ncube says are "joined at the hip" is moving according to plan, with treasury now in the process of identifying potential suitors through a local financial advisory.

Speaking at this week's cabinet media briefing on Tuesday, Ncube said Government had set itself a nine-month timeline to finalise identifying investors. Government is also looking for an investor who is willing to take up both entities as a single package.

"I expect that between January and September, we would have been able to identify suitors for the two entities. What needs to be done in the interim is that we need to finalise contracts with transaction advisors. We believe that Government will get a better deal if these entities are offloaded together as a package," said Ncube.

Government is targeting to retain at least 40% in Tel-One and Net-One.

Ncube said a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be set up to house the two entities and the shareholding will be sold at that level.

"Therefore, there is no need to merge these operations. The process is going to be a simple one."

Government says it will also be encouraging the listing of both enterprises on the ZSE.

The finance minister said that PwC are the transaction advisors after having signed a contract with Tel One. Since they are now offloading both enterprises as a single package, they are likely to engage them again.

"We had engaged them for TelOne, but since we have agreed to privatise them as a single package, we will definitely talk to them on this one," he said.

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