MTN has gained a presence in Botswana with the "full co-operation" of the Econet Wireless Group, which is engaged in a legal battle elsewhere with MTN rival Vodacom.
MTN spent about $128 million on a 44% indirect stake in Mascom Wireless Botswana, which has a market share of more than 70% and a subscriber base of about 440 000.
Before the acquisition, Econet held a 40% stake in the Botswana operator, while the balance was held by several other investors.
MTN, which is in a closed period ahead of the release of its interim results later this month, has not disclosed any more details of the deal.
Although Econet has supported MTN`s acquisition of the stake, it is fighting a court battle to prevent MTN rival Vodacom from acquiring a stake in a Nigerian operation in which Econet holds 5%.
An analyst says although the Botswana operator is small in terms of subscriber numbers, the acquisition is an important one for MTN, which has been seen to trail Vodacom in terms of an African presence.
In addition, it is an important psychological acquisition for MTN, which has suffered some setbacks recently in attempts to enlarge its geographical footprint.
Although it had succeeded in acquiring stakes in operators in Ivory Coast and Zambia, an attempt to buy African operator Celtel failed earlier this year. It is also struggling to get a stake in Iran.
MTN is also planning to acquire a stake in a Tunisian operator, and is bidding for a stake in a Namibian operator.
The analyst says he cannot comment on the price of the Mascom acquisition as he was not familiar with Mascom`s figures, "but no doubt we`ll get more detail at the results [presentation]", he adds.
The MTN share was trading at 5 535c on the JSE this morning, up 35c or 0.64% from yesterday`s close.
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