[kictanet] Private investors sign up for stake in cable project

[brian]

Finally the identity of some of the "osbscure" companies is beginning to be known

;-)

Brian

On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:54:50 +0300, Bill Kagai <mediacorp.research at mediacorp.co.ke> wrote:
> * Private investors sign up for stake in cable project*
> 
> http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6661&Itemid=5847
> *
> March 27, 2008:* The construction of the undersea fibre optic cable that
> is
> to connect Kenya to the world of high speed Internet has received a big
> boost with the signing of an agreement that paves the way for the private
> sector to contribute to its financing.
> 
> The agreement which makes the signatories co-owners of the East African
> Marine System project with the Government, was signed last week even as
> the
> new shareholders forced out two prospective buyers.
> 
> The new shareholder agreement leaves Safaricom and the Government of Kenya
> as the anchor shareholders with a 20 per cent stake each in the project
> and
> Wananchi Telecom with 10 per cent. Kenya Data Network and Celtel jointly
> acquired a 10 per cent stake in the company while France Telecom  and
> Econet
> Kenya have a 10 per cent share each.
> 
> Jamii Telkom got four per cent although it had initially expressed
> interest
> in buying 3.75 per cent.
> 
> Two firms, Gilat Satcom and Internet Research, a Ghanaian company, were
> knocked out of the ownership agreement for failing to meet the 20 per cent
> local representation requirement. Each had expressed an interest in
> acquiring a 1.25 per cent stake.
> 
> The identity of two local companies that had expressed interest in the
> project remains unknown. The companies are, however, said to be associated
> with Brian Longwe, a Kenyan IT sector businessman.
> 
> The signing of the shareholder pact, also known as an Escrow agreement
> comes
> after the Government  signed an initial shareholder agreement with
> Etisalat
> of United Arab Emirates.
> 
> The Government paid 12 per cent of its total 85 per cent ownership in the
> cable. Etisalat also made a down payment of $1.2 million to cover 12 per
> cent of its total 15 per cent ownership of the cable.
> 
> These two payments gave Alcatel-Lucent, the company that won the tender to
> build the cable from Fujairah to the port of Mombasa .
> 
> Manufacturing the cables was  to begin on March 15, this year, but started
> three days later. Information ministry Permanent secretary, Bitange Ndemo,
> said Alcatel-Lucent has appointed a team to oversee construction.
> 
> The timeline for the TEAMs project indicates that it should be ready by
> the
> second quarter of next year.
> 
> Other than TEAMs, two other fibre optic cables, SEACOM and EASSy are
> competing to connect East Africa to the global network of highspeed
> internet.
> 
> EASSy concluded financial closure in the last week of February having
> raised
> $248 million that enabled it to make a down payment to the contractor
> Alcatel-Lucent.  According to the EASSy secretariat, the first phase of
> construction kicked off on March 14, this year and is expected to be ready
> in the first half of 2010.
> 
> The EASSy cable will run 10,500 kilometres from South Africa, through
> Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Mayotte, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia,
> Djibouti
> and Sudan.
> Thirteen land locked countries will also be linked to the system through
> terrestrial backbone networks.
> 
> This includes, Bostwana, Burundi, Central Africa Republic, the Democratic
> Republic of Congo, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda Swaziland,
> Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
> 
> Jamii Telecom Limited, a subsidiary of the AdGroup of Companies'
> investment
> in TEAMS project is meant to complement its Metro Fiber Network whose
> construction began last year.
> 
> Technology company AccessKenya has a 1.25 per cent stake in the project
> and
> aims at increasing its bandwidth capacity 10 times. Access Kenya is yet to
> disclose the amount of money it plans to pump into the project.
> 
> So far Jamii has spent more than Sh500 million on the Nairobi Metro Fibre
> ––
> targeting a market that is currently dominated by Telkom Kenya and Kenya
> Data Networks (KDN) ––and plans to spend additional Sh700 million in
> the
> network.
> 
> By buying into TEAMS, Jamii and Access Kenya hope to provide terrestrial
> connectivity that will ultimately hook consumers to the global network of
> high speed Internet.
> 
> John Kamau, the general manager at Jamii said the firm hoped to leverage
> on
> the National Fiber Optic backbone to enhance international connectivity.
> 
> Kenya's information communication technology (ICT) sector is expected to
> grow tremendously once the fibre optic cables are up and running.
> 
> The cables will stop reliance on the more expensive satellite
> technologies,
> bringing down costs and attracting new players especially in the Business
> Process Outsourcing, call centres, segment.
> 
> Mr Kamau says that the Jamii's Metro Fiber network, is able to support
> High
> Definition Video, Voice and Data is ideal for Telco's, businesses with
> branch networks like  banks, BPOs, disaster recovery sites, SMEs, ISP's,
> Media Houses and residential users among others.
> 
>