African fibre company Liquid Telecommunication Holdings is seeking to raise US$225 million in equity by the end of the year, according to a number of reports.
US development agency the International Development Finance Corporation says it will be one of the biggest participants in a US$90 million tranche in the next few weeks. Bloomberg News says Liquid plans a second round later in the year.
This investment will help Liquid to deal with looming maturities on loan and bond repayments; a US$156 million equivalent term loan and US$620 million bonds are due in 2026.
One assumes this investment also indicates the potential of Liquid’s business. It’s true enough that the sort of digital services Liquid provides in Africa are bridging gaps in countries that lack legacy infrastructure, so there is a clear need. Indeed, Liquid has reportedly laid over 110,000 kilometres of fibre across Africa as demand for higher-speed internet links and data storage increases.
Chief Executive Officer Hardy Pemhiwa says Liquid is already working with Microsoft and Google on broadband projects in East Africa. The project with Microsoft aims to deliver affordable broadband through last-mile connection to 20 million Africans across Kenya and Zambia.
In May we reported that Google had announced Umoja, which it says is the first-ever fibre optic route to directly connect Africa with Australia. Umoja’s terrestrial path was built in collaboration with Liquid Intelligent Technologies.
Anchored in Kenya, the Umoja cable route will pass through Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, including the Google Cloud region, before crossing the Indian Ocean to Australia.
The route will provide connectivity to a number of data centres and an alternative option to deal with traffic in the event of a subsea cable outage between South Africa and Kenya.
