In Nairobi last week the plan to privatise Telkom Kenya was presented in detail at a two-day government-inspired and sponsored conference. It was very successful and the proposed sell-off of the the East African country's state-run incumbent has now attracted seven potential bidders.
Operators interested in acquiring a 51 per cent controlling share of the sole provider of fixed line services in the Kenya include India’s MTNL, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, as well as France Telecom, South Africa's Telkom, British Telecom and Kuwait's Alkazar.
In an effort to make the nationalised carrier attractive to prospective buyers, the heavily overstaffed Telkom Kenya is being axed of a further 4,400 employees. The number of reduncdancies made at the telco now totals 9,767. The operator's managing director, Sammy Kirui says that by October the total number of employees will be just 3,100.
Telkom Kenya has begun a root and branch restructuring in anticipation of privatisation and is selling-off some of its assets as well. The carrier is also in talks about transferring some of the Telkom’s debt to the Kenyan government along with its 60 per cent stake in the country’s mobile network service provider, Safaricom.
The new shareholding structure of Telkom Kenya will comprise a 30 per cent share held by the government, 40 per cent held by a strategic partner, and the remaining 30 per cent by the public through the sale of shares on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
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