Zimbabwe's Econet and subsea cable operator Seacom are considering buying South African operator Neotel. South African site MyBroadband quoted unnamed "industry sources" as saying that Seacom and Econet, which owns the fast-growing African operator Liquid Telecom, are both in talks with Neotel parent Tata Communications on a potential deal. The news comes after Vodacom was forced to walk away from its ZAR 7 billion plan to buy Neotel following regulatory objections.
Neotel has long been a close partner of Seacom, and Seacom has been actively expanding its services beyond simply providing undersea fibre capacity to service providers. In 2015, it launched Seacom Business, a new division that sells capacity across its infrastructure directly to corporate customers and small and medium enterprises. Last-mile fibre has become a major focus for the company in the corporate market, and an acquisition of Neotel could bolster its offerings in that space.
