It appears that we are in the season of mergers and takeovers with reports indicating that Airtel has begun talks with Telkom Kenya for a possible buyout. This it appears is in a bid to enable Airtel better take on its main competitor Safaricom.
Sometime last year, the two telcos held talks about a possible merger but it appears that the talks did not bear fruit. This time around, should the deal be approved by the Communications Authority, the entity which will be formed will have a combined market share of 33.3 percent against Safaricom’s 64.2 percent. It will have a total of 14.6 million subscribers as compared to Safaricom’s 29.94 Million subscribers.
Helios investment who bought a 60 per cent stake in Telkom back in 2015, is apparently looking to partly cash out on the investment.