Investment multinational STOA Infra and Energy has announced the acquisition of a significant minority equity interest, 23.08 per cent, in Metro Fiber, a South African open access fiber network operator.
Metro Fiber is a new South African player with strong growth potential in the consumer fiber (FibreTo-The-Home or “FTTH”) and fiber-to-business markets (Fiber-To-The-Business or “FTTB”) “).
STOA is a public limited company owned by Caisse des Dépôts, CDC and the French Agency of
Development (“AFD”) whose purpose is to invest up to 600 million euros in equity and almost own funds in emerging and developing countries, particularly in Africa, in energy, telecommunications and transport.
Founded in 2010, Metro Fiber began business by providing fiber connectivity services to medium and large South African companies. During the last eight years, in line with its strategic objective to evolve into a diversified operator, Metro Fiber has expanded its service offering in the residential and business markets. Metro Fiber owns its core network, an open access network compliant with international standards and certified Carrier Ethernet 2.0. The Metro Fibre development plan aims in particular to put in place a national coverage network for its FTTH and FTTB customers.
In 2015, Metro Fiber launched its FTTH service offering targeting the northern suburbs of Johannesburg and Pretoria in Gauteng Province. Since then, the number of households connected has grown annual compound (“CAGR”) of more than 216% and more than 151% for the number of households connected.
In the FTTB segment, Metro Fiber has evolved its service offering from service provision Tier 1 and Level 2 layer 3 layer services in the retail and wholesale markets.
Metro Fiber strategically developed its FTTB expertise to provide service companies “blue chip” and counts among its clients both local and international companies.
In November 2017, Metro Fiber’s shareholders and management team initiated a program investment that will allow the company to invest more than 2 billion South African Rand in his heart to improve the FTTH and FTTB offer. Current shareholding, which includes Sanlam Life Insurance Limited – through its Sanlam Private Equity division – and African Rainbow Capital Investment Limited, has agreed to contribute additional capital and to welcome a new shareholder in Metro Fiber.
Commenting on the transaction, Steve Booysen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Metro Fiber, said: “In the continuity of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s efforts to attract foreign direct investment
In South Africa, Metro Fiber looks forward to attracting STOA’s investment not only our society but more broadly in the South African economy. »Investment is important for the telecommunications sector, which President Ramaphosa acknowledges in his statement State of the Nation Speech of 2019 that “the telecommunications sector presents a potential to stimulate economic growth.
