Johannesburg-based pre-paid airtime distributor Blue Label Telecoms says its plan to acquire a 35% stake in South African mobile operator Cell C for ZAR4 billion (USD297.5 million) is still ‘on track’, despite the nominal 1 June 2016 completion date having passed. Mark Levy, joint CEO of Blue Label Telecoms, told Fin24: ‘As far as we are concerned everything is on track. It’s a massive transaction from a Blue Label perspective, so we’ll ensure that all the i’s are dotted and all the t’s are crossed before we cross over. There are no issues from either side; it’s just a big transaction. It takes time and it takes discipline to ensure that everything is done 100% correctly.’
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in December last year the boards of Cell C and its holding company 3C Telecommunications accepted an offer from Blue Label Telecoms for the deal, which is expected to involve Cell C management and staff holding about 30% of the cellco’s shares, with 3C Telecommunications holding around 35%. As a result, Cell C’s major stakeholder, Dubai-based Oger Telecom, is set to decrease its long-held stake in the company.