Vodafone Plc has agreed a sale of its operations in Ghana to Telecel Group, as the British telecommunications giant looks to refocus on key markets.
The London-listed company will sell its majority stake in Vodafone Ghana to Africa-focused Telecel, subject to certain conditions, a spokesperson for Vodafone said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg.
Vodafone entered Ghana in 2008 when it paid the west African county’s government $900 million for 70% of Ghana Telecommunications Co. The government retains a 30% holding in the business.
Telecel plans to help fund the acquisition by later offloading the Ghana business’s mobile towers, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.
A representative for Telecel confirmed the talks with Vodafone, but declined to comment further.
Vodafone Ghana is currently the second largest operator by subscriptions, but it is still one of three unprofitable telcos in the country. The Group for many years stopped pumping money into the Ghana operations and the decision to sell does not come as a surprise to industry watchers.
