Smile owners, lenders agree on refinancing plan
Wednesday April 07 2021
Smile Uganda, which is a subsidiary of Smile Telecoms Holdings has operations within Kampala and other cities. PHOTO/COURTESY
Summary
The dispute had threatened close to $250m in loans due to Smile Telecoms held in both equity and commercial bank loans.
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Smile Telecoms Holdings shareholders have agreed on a refinancing plan that will see majority owner, Al Nahla Group, commit $51m in fresh capital.
The South African-based telecom, which has operations in Uganda, Tanzania, DR Congo and Nigeria had been threatened by a disagreement between two majority shareholders - Saudi Arabia’s Al Nahla Group and South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation - after they failed to agree on a put option, thus exposing the company to liquidation.
Smile Telecoms gets restructuring plan
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Smile Telecoms Gets Restructuring Plan
thisdaylive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thisdaylive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Pan-African telecommunications group with operations in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Smile Telecoms Holdings Limited, has disclosed that its restructuring plan has been approved.
This debt restructuring plan sees an injection of fresh money from Smile’s majority shareholder, the Al Nahla, and rescheduling on debt repayment until after March 2022.
APO Group, in a statement deployed on behalf of Smile Telecoms Holdings Ltd, informed that the fresh injection of $51 million in funding for operations will enhance Smile’s position in its respective markets and energize its operations while supporting efforts towards achieving better performance. x
About Smile Telecoms Holdings Ltd:
Founded in 2007, with its head office in England, Smile Telecoms Holdings Ltd is a Pan-African telecommunications group with operations in Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Africa. The company has one of the largest sub-1 GHz 4G LTE commercial networks in Africa, operating in the “future proof low band, 800 MHz band, and mid-band.
Smile was the first to launch VoLTE on its network and continued its innovation, introducing SmileVoice, a free mobile app. SmileVoice enables customers with any Android or Apple iPhone device (including those which are not VoLTE-enabled) to make SuperClear voice calls over Smile s 4G LTE network. Smile was also the first to introduce an Unlimited offering, which enables SuperFast data and SuperClear voice, all on one bundle.