[kictanet] [Fibre-for-africa] SEACOM gets funding boost

[alice]

Hi all

Out of curiosity, who is SEACOM? rather who are behind SEACOM?
Anyone conducted due diligence. Any connection to the Africa One saga?

best
alice



Wairagala Wakabi wrote:
> Netters,
> Its backers are saying SEACOM will be the only new cable completed in time
> to give South Africa the bandwidth needed for the 2010 WC, with "actual
> production of the fibreoptic cable and undersea facilities" starting next
> week. SA's SNO, NEOTEL, has helped marshal capital from local financial
> heavyweights, enabling NEOTEL to be owned 50% by South Africans.
>
> Tut Tut...
>
> Wakabi
>
>
> Sea cable venture lands big investors
>
> By Lesley Stones, Business Day, November 14 2007
>
> AN UNDERSEA cable promising cheap bandwidth for Africa yesterday finally
> named its backers, signing up enough well-connected local investors to
> guarantee its landing rights in SA.
>
> Investment heavyweight Venfin is sinking $75m into the project, taking a
> 25% stake in the 15000km cable linking SA to India and Europe.
>
> Cyril Ramaphosa’s black investment house Shanduka is taking 12,5%, worth
> $37,5m. Another 12,5% goes to Convergence Partners, a group of black
> investors led by Andile Ngcaba, the chairman of Dimension Data Africa and
> a former director-general of the communications department. Nedbank
> Capital and Investec will provide financing for the $650m project.
>
> SA’s second network operator, Neotel, is pumping in a far more modest
> R20m, and using its telecoms licence to guarantee that the cable can dock
> in SA.
>
> The local ownership is sufficient to ensure that Seacom meets
> controversial new conditions being drawn up by Communications Minister Ivy
> Matsepe-Casaburri, dictating who can land a cable in SA. The minister is
> insisting that any cable must be majority owned by African investors to
> come ashore.
>
> South Africans hold 50% of Seacom, and that rises to 75% African ownership
> thanks to 25% held by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development’s
> Industrial Promotion Services, a development agency based in Kenya.
>
> The remaining 25% lies with New York’s Herakles Telecom, a development
> group that has invested $4bn in Africa.
>
> Neotel is investing only in the local landing station, but its licence to
> operate in SA conferred on it the right to land a cable, said MD Ajay
> Pandey.
>
> “Our understanding is that the country needs international capacity, and
> the way international cable landing protocols have been defined means we
> have the opportunity here.”
>
> Venfin CEO Jannie Durand said Neotel’s licence to land a cable in SA meant
> everything had been done “legally and correctly”. Venfin was backing
> Seacom for two reasons, he said: “We are hopefully going to make a lot of
> money out of it and SA needs more bandwidth. We want to bring SA
> affordable bandwidth to the rest of the world.”
>
> Although the cable will cost $650m, it would be partly funded by loans as
> well as equity, allowing Venfin to take 25% for less than the book value
> of the project, Durand said.
>
> Pandey believes Seacom will be the onlyThe actual production of the
> fibreoptic cable and undersea facilities will start next week.
>
> The consortium has already invested more than $10m in a marine survey and
> engineering of the cable. The actual production of the fibreoptic cable
> and undersea facilities will start next week.
>
> Seacom will connect Mtunzini in SA to Mumbai in India and Marseilles in
> France via Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania by June 2009.
>
> Terrestrial links will be built to take its bandwidth to numerous other
> inland countries. Its capacity of 1,28 terabytes per second is 10 times
> the capacity on the existing Sat-3 cable around Africa’s west coast.
>
> The consortium has promised that it will charge other voice and data
> carriers significantly less for its bandwidth than they pay to use Sat-3
> or satellite services, which should trigger a massive decrease in the cost
> of phone calls, internet access and data transmissions for African
> consumers and businesses.
>
> “Improved access for business and individuals in Africa to communications,
> broadband services and new technology offerings can improve lives and help
> grow the economies of our countries,” said Ngcaba, the chairman of
> Convergence Partners. “The linking of southern and east Africa with India
> and Europe is crucial for enhancing development and trade between these
> key regions.”
>
>
>
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