Tatas To Acquire Majority Stake In Neotel

Tata Communications has entered into an agreement with Eskom and Transnet (two South African state-owned enterprises) to acquire their 30 percent interest in Neotel, the second largest telecommunications network operator in South Africa. Neotel provides a range of value-added voice and data services for businesses, wholesale network operators and providers, and connects all major centres in South Africa to each other.

This agreement is subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions precedent, some of which have a period of up to 180 days to be fulfilled. The other shareholders of Neotel are Nexus, Communitel and two telecom consortiums.

Upon the implementation of the agreement, Tata Communications together with Tata Africa would hold an effective 56 percent stake in Neotel.

Tata Africa Holdings is the investment arm of the Tata Group of companies in South Africa. It has operations in eight countries in Africa.