Naspers And Dimension Data May Soon Sell Their Stakes In VAST Networks To Link Africa

Naspers is well-known for its affiliation with Tencent. Recently, the South African firm has been involved in multiple deals. It’s latest was the full takeover of Russian leading classifieds site Avito, for which it invested USD 1.16 Bn.

The company’s shares rose 2.2 percent to trade at SAR 3,080.96 as on Tuesday evening, which brought Nasper’s value to SAR 1.36 trillion (USD 117,592,000,000).

The investment arm of this firm alongside Dimension Data – a South African unit of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., is in talks to sell their joint venture in Vast Networks to fiber-optic infrastructure company to Link Africa. According to sources who opted to remain unidentified, Investec Ltd is reported to be managing the sale of Africa’s largest public Wi-Fi network.

While terms could be changed later, Link Africa has offered USD 33 Mn for the deal, but the deal has not yet been completed. Naspers holds a 51 percent stake in VAST Networks, while Dimension Data holds the balance of that.

All parties involved in the deal are yet to respond to comments, and at press time, it is believed that the companies would soon announce their conclusions.

VAST began in 2015, providing open-access Wifi network infrastructure in South Africa, and growing to hold a number of exclusive agreements with businesses. The company will be a great asset to Link Africa because it anticipates 5G networks being rolled out in South Africa, which needs high cellphone density.

Featured Image: MyBroadband