South African mobile phone operator Vodacom Group Ltd said on Friday it has agreed to sell its Business units offering business-managed services to enterprises in Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Angola and and Cote d’Ivoire, according to Reuters.
While the businesses in Nigeria, Zambia and Ivory Coast are being sold to Synergy Communications and to Vodafone Ghana in Ghana, Vodacom, which is majority-owned by Vodafone Group Plc, said it had agreed to sell the Angolan assets of its Business Africa unit to Internet Technologies Angola.
“In each of the five Vodacom Business Africa markets, the respective partners will acquire all of the operations and assets held by Vodacom,” the company said in a statement, adding that the financial terms were confidential.
The company says it offers business-managed services to enterprises in 50 countries through Vodacom Business Africa, but will no longer directly service global enterprise customers in the five markets covered in the agreements, but continue to operate as a telecommunications network provider through local service provider agreements.
“The transactions support Vodacom Group’s enterprise strategy in Africa, which has been refocused to grow and strengthen its core business,” the company said.
A Vodacom spokeswoman could not immediately provide more details on the reasoning behind the disposals of the operations.
In the year ended March 31, enterprise service revenue contributed 23% to group service revenue, with 77% of the revenue coming from consumer service.
Vodacom said the agreements were subject to regulatory approvals in all the relevant markets.