The Orange Group announced yesterday that it has signed a binding agreement with Helios Investment Partners for the sale of its entire 70% stake in Telkom Kenya.
The finalization of the transaction remains subject to approval from the relevant authorities.
This signature reflects Orange’s constant focus on optimizing its portfolio of assets. The Africa and Middle-East region is a strategic priority for the Group.
Telkom Kenya is the country’s incumbent fixed-line operator and is the third player in the mobile market. The company, which operates a high-quality mobile data network, had four million mobile customers at the end of June 2015 according to figures published by the regulator.
Not Making Money!
Orange Kenya was having a hard time breaking even in Kenya and it was time before the company pulled out its operations. Orange is a very successful operator globally but in Kenya the company has had a very tough time mainly because of its unattractive products and market domination by Safaricom.
Kenya is a very unique market as Orange has seen so far. Even Airtel has had a hard time breaking even and the company has been rumored to be planning an exit from the market. This has yet to happen and my guess is that it may not do so in the near future. Yu Mobile, which was considered the fourth operator, had a soft exit a few months ago but still has presence in the country. It’s not clear if the company will re-enter the market or will pull everything out completely.
Keep it here to be updated on how this Orange story turns out.