The telecom giant has teamed up with investment company Alcazar Capital, which has a 15% stake in the consortium.
France Telecom has recently been following a strategy of pursuing growth in fast growing markets outside of Western Europe. The company bought a majority interest in Jordan Telecom last year and acquired a 51% stake in Lightspeed, a VoIP services provider in Bahrain, earlier this year. The company currently has a presence in Africa, including operations in Senegal and Mali.
Other European telecommunication companies have similarly expansive strategies with a particular focus on emerging markets in Asia and Africa. Earlier this year, UK-based Vodafone acquired a controlling stake in the Indian operations of Hutchison Telecom.
Rob Goyens, an analyst at the financial services firm Dexia, said that France Telecom’s ‘rest of the world’ division, which includes emerging markets, provides strong revenue growth and margins of over 40%.
According to France Telecom, Telkom Kenya will provide mobile, fixed-line, and internet services under its Orange brand. The Kenyan incumbent currently offers fixed-line services to over 280,000 customers and
will also receive a new mobile-phone license.
The company expects the investment to be complete by the end of this year.
Source: ComputerWire daily updates
