The Competition Tribunal of South Africa has approved what it claims to be ‘a number of mergers’ which will see Vodacom South Africa, Altech Autopage, and MTN South Africa take over the subscribers currently affiliated to reseller Nashua Mobile, BusinessTech reports. Nashua Mobile, which describes itself as ‘one of South Africa’s largest, independent cellular solution providers’, said that the accounts will be moved to the relevant acquiring parties with effect from 4 November 2014.
As TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate reported in April 2014, JSE-listed ICT group Reunert, the parent company of Nashua Mobile, agreed to offload its 750,000-strong subscriber base to the three companies and cease operations as soon as the subscribers are migrated, as ‘it is unlikely that the business would generate acceptable returns’.
Subsequently, Vodacom and MTN agreed to buy out their respective subscribers contracted to the telecoms reseller, following a pair of separate sale agreements worth ZAR2.26 billion (USD214.8 million), while Altech Autopage, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Allied Electronics Corporation (Altron), signed a contract to acquire Nashua Mobile’s Cell C client base, estimated at around 65,000 users, for ZAR91.5 million in May.