Blue Label pulls off Cell C deal

OWN CORRESPONDENT

The Levy brothers in 2007 won the SA Jewish Achiever Award in the non-listed category. Their company has since been listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Brett at the time gave his company’s “vision for the future” as follows: “Change the way that communication is being done in all developing countries. I would like to be in 21 countries by the end of 2009, giving all emerging markets the ability to communicate and grow with the rest of the world.

“We are halfway there and our restrictions are rather time to get there than the ability to do the job. We will hopefully be listed in three months’ time, which should help our speed to market. All in all the future looks great.” Indeed.

In a statement to investors on Monday afternoon – just a day before a deadline to finalise a deal – Blue Label said it has reached a “binding umbrella restructure agreement” with Cell C, its debt providers, a third-party investor (presumably Net1 UEPS Technologies) and “other relevant parties”.

However, Blue Label said the binding agreement is “subject to the conclusion of the relevant transaction agreements, which agreements are expected to be unconditional by no later than June 30, 2017.”

In terms of the agreement, Cell C’s net borrowings will be reduced to R6 billion (from more than R20 billion).

The third-party investor, which Blue Label doesn’t name (though it’s named Net1 in previous communication to shareholders), will subscribe for 15 per cent of Cell C’s share capital for R2 billion, while Blue Label will buy 45 per cent of the business for R5,5 billion, the same as before.

The agreement may now have scuppered any hope Telkom had to snatch a last-minute deal to acquire Cell C from under Blue Label’s nose.

Some of Cell C’s lenders – believed to include Chinese and South African banks – are said to have shopped around for interest from other parties. This prompted Telkom to lodge a “proposal” with Cell C’s board, which the board last week rejected out of hand.