Africa-Press – South-Africa. Harith General Partners, which invests in African infrastructure, announced on Tuesday that it has concluded the sale of its stake in the west African communications services operator MainOne for $320 million (~R4.7 billion) on a gross basis.
MainOne is one of the largest investments of the Harith-managed $630 million Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF). Harith’s stake was bought by Nasdaq-listed Equinix, a digital infrastructure company.Harith regards the sale of MainOne as an important milestone for the company and the PAIDF investors.Harith CEO Sipho Makhubela told Fin24 on Tuesday evening that the timing was right to sell MainONe.
“It is not a forced sale. Equinix can now take MainONe to the next level, while we can look into other infrastructure investment opportunities,” said Makhubela. “We are happy with the value proposition we got from the deal.” In his view, the success of MainOne illustrates Harith’s proven ability to identify compelling value opportunities that have the potential to deliver both developmental and financial returns to investors.”With a successful exit from MainOne secured and a deep team of investment professionals specialised in infrastructure, we are now well poised to capitalise on the next wave of digital opportunities on the continent.”Harith is the majority partner in the Takatso consortium, chosen more than eight months ago by the Department of Public Enterprises as strategic equity partner for South African Airways (SAA). The deal, in which Takatso will get a 51% share of the airline, is currently awaiting regulatory approvals. It is expected that Takatso will invest about R3 billion in SAA over a period of three years.Asked whether the sale of MainOne is at all related to the finalisation of the Takatso deal with SAA for which the source of funding is as yet unknown, Makhubela explains that transactions like the one with Equinix are not closed overnight.”If it was not for the Covid-19 pandemic we would have completed the MainOne deal sooner. It is completely unrelated to Takatso,” he says.”What is important for us is to showcase the length and breadth of our expertise and how we operate across the continent, our pedigree and the kinds of relationships we have built on merit. The MainOne deal is a testament to who we are and the partners we are able to do transactions with.” Fin24 reported in March that Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has requested the DPE to provide more information about the Takatso deal after National Treasury expressed concerns over terms and conditions.
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