EDITORIAL: Sipho Maseko makes a tough call on Cell C
Telkom’s bid is good news for consumers but perhaps not for shareholders
18 November 2019 - 05:05
Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko is walking a tightrope. Maseko, at the helm since 2013, is aggressively pushing Telkom’s mobile phone business deeper into a market dominated by established rivals MTN and Vodacom. But its hefty capital expenditure has jacked up debt to dangerously high levels and wiped out its cash flows.
News on Friday that Telkom has put in a buyout bid for his long-term target, Cell C, underlines Maseko’s unassailable strategic logic of building a stronger mobile phone business but also raises questions about its effect on Telkom’s capital structure. ..
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