51% SNO shareholder in eight weeks

Johannesburg, 04 Nov 2003

Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has announced that the second network operator (SNO) licence has been awarded and a 51% shareholder in the SNO will be known within eight weeks.

The minister told a media conference in Pretoria this afternoon that she had decided to accept the Independent Communications Authority of SA`s (ICASA) recommendation on the basis of the options suggested by the regulator and had decided to take the matter forward in the following manner.

Matsepe-Casaburri says that the 51% share will be warehoused until a suitable investor is found and a licence will be issued to an entity that consists of the integrated 30% of the state-owned enterprises, the 19% held by Nexus Connexion and the warehoused 51% stake.

According to the minister, the licensing of the entity as a whole, rather than just a portion thereof, is covered in the existing legislation, so no amendments will have to be made.

The minister says there will not be a third tender process for the share, instead, the government will identify the shareholders and announce them to the public within the next eight weeks. She says that an independent evaluation of the state-owned enterprise assets will be done in collaboration with the minister of public enterprises.

"There is no need for a further tender process - there are already parties out there who have put their hands up and shown interest, including the existing applicants, Two Consortium and CommuniTel, who will not be excluded from consideration in the process of identifying shareholders," says Matsepe-Casaburri.

"Government will meet with the existing applicants and other stakeholders to discuss the best way forward during the next few weeks."

Matsepe-Casaburri says the reason for the eight-week deadline is that the government wants to move quickly because the window of opportunity for the SNO to be feasible is closing.

CommuniTel CEO Peter Archer believes the minister has taken a necessary step, leaving scope to move forward, especially as CommuniTel has already held many discussions with both the minister and Two Consortium.

"We will see where it goes from here and we will let you know our full comment in eight weeks time," he says.