The coronavirus pandemic is hampering efforts by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa to sell a stake in Africa’s largest fibre company, Liquid Telecom, Bloomberg reported. Masiyiwa is seeking buyers for 20-34 percent of Liquid Telecom for as much as USD 600 million, Bloomberg said citing four people with direct knowledge of the matter.
He needs the money to repay a USD 375-million loan that was backed by Public Investment Corp. The PIC, which oversees the equivalent of USD 135 billion mainly on behalf of South African government workers, is demanding the issue be resolved by the end of August after granting an extension on the payment earlier in 2020, the report said. The loan it backed was used to fund a pay-TV venture, which failed last year because Zimbabwe’s economic woes and currency shortages meant the company couldn’t pay suppliers.
The 59-year-old tycoon had pledged shares in Liquid Telecom to the PIC as security for the loan, which had been taken out with Deutsche Bank. Masiyiwa was planning to repay the debt from the proceeds of an initial public offering in Liquid Telecom, which was scrapped because of volatile equity markets.
The founder of Econet Global would rather sell part of his 66 percent stake in Liquid Telecom to avoid surrendering shares in the company at a discount to the PIC, one of the people said. Masiyiwa hired Goldman Sachs Group earlier this year to sell the stake, but talks with potential investors started unraveling after the Covid-19 outbreak intensified in March, the people said.
Buyers wanted more time to assess the economic fallout of lockdowns to contain the virus on Africa’s economies, they said. Representatives for the PIC, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Econet declined to comment.
