It is being reported that South Africa's MTN and Telkom have separately made bids to buy Zimbabwe's mobile and landline operators, Net*One and TelOne, respectively. The Herald newspaper broke the news by citing government sources.
"Several firms have expressed interest in NetOne (and TelOne) and we are in the process of conducting due diligence on these bids. They will soon be presented to Cabinet before we choose the winner. Yes, MTN and Telkom are some of the companies that have expressed interest in the companies NetOne and TelOne", said a Government source.
There have been previous rumours that South African companies have been eying Zimbabwe's telecoms market, but this is the first formal confirmation of interest. Zimbabwean mobile network operator, Telecel put out a formal denial that it was seeking a sale to MTN last July.
The country currently has three mobile network operators. According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, Net*One is estimated to have ended last year with around 250,000 subscribers - representing a market share of around 9.4%.
Responding to rumours last August about a possible stock-market flotation, the government said that it would not reduce its holding in Net*One below 60 percent. There is reasonable doubt as to whether a South African company would be willing to buy a minority stake in a Zimbabwean firm though.
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