Liquid Telecom South Africa Term Loan (IFC-44830)

Countries
  • South Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Oct 30, 2020
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
LIQUID TELECOM SOUTH AFRICA
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Communications
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 75.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 225.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Apr 20, 2021

Disclosed by Bank Mar 30, 2021

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

Liquid Telecommunications Holdings Limited (Liquid, LTH or the “Company”) is the leading pan-African provider of wholesale voice, wholesale data and internet protocol (IP) services. The company invited IFC to: (i) participate in its new bond offering to up to US$100 million (the Bond), and (ii) provide up to US$75 million (ZAR equivalent) of an IFC A Loan (Term Loan), to fully refinance the company’s existing Eurobond and revolving credit facilities (the “Project”). The Bond was subscribed to during February 2021 at the LTH level, with the Term Loan (at the Liquid Telecommunications South Africa level) to follow in the coming months. Liquid Telecommunications South Africa (or “LTSA”) is a subsidiary of LTH.

The investment aims at freeing up Liquids current debt stock to unlock more free cash flow for capital expansion plans across Africa over the next few years. Such expansion includes furthering Liquids fiber network and digital footprint of services across markets including DRC, Angola, South Sudan, Nigeria and such other markets as deemed appropriate from time to time. The funding would allow for the necessary capex expansion plans to be funded over the next few years and contribute to Liquid remaining active and competitive in the Pan-African markets they operate in.This project is linked to https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/SII/44798/liquid-telecom-bond

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

LTH is a privately owned company which was established in 2004 as an independent telecommunications provider of international, voice, internet and data transmission using fiber and satellite technologies. The company is ultimately owned by shareholders including Royal Bafokeng Nation, CDC Group, Gateway Partners, the Masiyiwa Family, and the Rudnick Family.

Liquid operates its own fiber optic and wireless networks in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Botswana, DRC, Zambia, South Sudan and Zimbabwe, with further commercial presence in Nigeria, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The Company also has a point of presence in  Mozambique. Liquid has also built Africa’s largest independent fiber network, approaching 73,000 km, and operates state-of-the-art data centers in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi, with a combined potential 19,000 square meters of rack space and 80 MW of power.

The scope of services offered by Liquid’s operations varies from country to country; however, its main focus is provisioning mobile operators, carriers, enterprise, media and content companies and retail customers with high-speed, reliable connectivity, hosting and co-location and digital services.

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - Liquid Telecommunications Holdings Limited Client -

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Liquid Telecommunications Holdings Limited
Kate Hennessy
Chief Financial Officer
+442071016210
kate.hennessy@liquidtelecom.com 
Liquid Telecom, 6 New Street Square, London, EC4A 3BF
www.liquidtelecom.com 

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries 

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org 

How it works

How it works