The Competition Tribunal today gave the go-ahead for Altech Autopage, MTN and Vodacom to take over Nashua Mobile's subscriber base.
The three deals were approved unconditionally, although undertakings were made by the acquiring companies in a bid to protect jobs at the cellular service provider, which is now set to cease to exist.
Nashua Mobile's eventual demise was announced in April, when parent company Reunert said it had agreed to sell its MTN and Vodacom subscriber bases to the cellphone operators for R2.26 billion. The following month, it said it would sell the 65 000-strong Cell C subscriber base, for a maximum amount of R91.5 million.
Reunert will earn a total maximum amount of R3.17 billion, which it will use to settle Nashua Mobile's liabilities, support Reunert's growth strategy, and then return the balance to shareholders, either through dividends, or share buybacks.
Nashua Mobile's sell-off came less than a year after it vowed to fix its reputation in a bid to win over customers. Nashua Mobile has been battling as competition between mobile operators intensified in the saturated market.
Reunert's decision was driven by the fact that Nashua Mobile was operating in a saturated, highly-competitive market, and experiencing declining average revenue per user and lower revenue streams.
Nashua Mobile, which has around 950 000 customers in total, was formed in 2000 after Nedtel Cellular and Nashua Cellular merged. It currently employs 601 staff and has 94 stores, the bulk of which are owned by franchisees. Around 300 employees have already found alternative employment.
The service provider will now have to provide Vodacom and MTN with a list of affected staff, and the mobile duopoly have committed to - for 18 months after the takeover - give preference to Nashua Mobile staff should an external vacancy arise for which they are suitably qualified.
Nashua Mobile will also seek to place any affected employees within the Reunert group within six months of the deal. Altech Autopage will also offer Nashua Mobile staff an opportunity of applying for positions, but its undertaking indicates first preference will go to staff it retrenched earlier this year.
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