A Libyan company, Lap Green Networks has won the tender to buy 80% of Rwanda's Rwandatel after agreeing to pay US$100 million and invest a minimum of US$87 million in the network within one year of completing the transaction. The government's Social Security Fund will retain its 20% stake.
Lap Green Networks also owns a majority stake in Uganda Telecom (UTL) and says that it plans to launch a borderless roaming service between the two networks. This would be similar to the deal recently announced between Kenya's Safaricom and MTN Rwanda which covers both Uganda and Kenya.
Lap Green is an arm of the Libyan government, created to manage its portfolio of investments outside the country.
Rwandatel was sold to the American backed Terracom - but the government reclaimed the company for a payment of just US$25 million after it claimed that Terracom had not honoured network deployment contracts.
Posted to the site on 15th October 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/26685.php