Investment firms fighting to take over Orange's stake in Orange Kenya are mainly eyeing the company's KES 13 billion real estate assets, an Orange valuation report shows, as reported in Business Daily. The report, which Orange prepared ahead of failed negotiations to sell the stake to Nigerian investors, shows that land, together with frequency spectrums and a vast fibre optic cables network, top the list of assets that the French company is using to entice suitors as it prepares to exit the Kenyan market.
Private equity firm Helios and the UK's British Telecom (BT) make the list of investors who have recently expressed interest in buying Orange's 70 percent stake in the Kenyan telecoms operator. The Treasury, which owns a minority 30 percent of Orange on behalf of the public and will be co-owner with the new shareholders, has been actively involved in the negotiations.
Orange's real estate wealth has never been made public and the valuation, which was done nearly two years ago, shows that the firm has 335 properties priced at KES 9.4 billion. The majority of the pieces of land have buildings that host telephone switches, repeaters or microwaves.
The report separately lists Orange as owning 39.1 hectares of land and real estate properties in Nairobi with 11 residential buildings, a sports club and offices all valued at KES 4 billion. Orange owns 23 per cent stake in TEAMs, a 5,000-kilometre undersea fibre optic cable that links Kenya to the global internet superhighway through Fujairah in the UAE. The company, which was sold to French firm Orange in 2007 at KES 27 billion, also has a 10 percent stake in another undersea optic cable, LION2, a 2,700-kilometre cable that connects Kenya to the global network through Mayotte in Mauritius, and an 8 percent stake in the East Africa Submarine System cable. Orange operates 3G, CDMA, GSM and Wimax frequencies that are critical to the rollout of the increasingly important data services as the voice market continues to shrink.
