Cell C, South Africa’s third largest mobile operator by subscribers, has confirmed that majority shareholder Oger Telecom has earmarked an equity investment of USD350 million into the company. Further, Nedbank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa have concluded a long-term financing package worth an additional ZAR2.2 billion (USD222.8 million) to Cell C. The company said that the funding will enable it to accelerate its network infrastructure rollout, and provide more competitive products and services to subscribers.
In an interview with TechCentral, CEO Alan Knott-Craig commented: ‘Our traffic has doubled in the past twelve to 15 months. A lot of capacity has already gone in, but we need a lot more, and a lot more coverage’. Cell C’s customer base has grown by more than two million in the past year he added, to 11.5 million by mid-2013. ‘Unless we build sufficient market share, we can’t achieve the scale to make the company completely sustainable,’ he assessed.