The investment company CIVH is thinking big in the South African telecoms sector. It is currently seeking funding of $ 361 million to support its investment in various segments, including data centers, telecom tower infrastructure and the wholesale mobile network.

Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH) – controlled by Remgro and owner of fiber optic connectivity providers Vumatel and Dark Fiber Africa (DFA) – has high ambitions for the South African telecoms market. The investment company is exploring business opportunities in these segments: data centers, telecom tower infrastructures and the wholesale mobile network.

Although CIVH has already invested in the data center segment, through the edge data centers located in the business districts, the company believes that it can transform them in the future into more mature data centers, able to play with the big boys and meet the accommodation needs of large international groups.

CIVH, which owns 3,000 camera towers through Vumacam – the provider of public video surveillance backed by Vumatel’s broadband connectivity – believes it can transform them into high density telecom towers. This equipment can then be rented from mobile telephone operators or used by CIVH to launch its own free access wireless network.

CIVH believes that the South African telecoms market offers it great potential for growth which can be realized through its strengths, in particular its current fiber optic network which stretches over 29,300 km, connects all key cities in South Africa, connects 11,500 mobile base stations and covers 240,000 homes and businesses. Not to mention its network for the Internet of Things which currently covers more than 90% of South Africa’s population and 90% of the country’s national roads.

All these projects were unveiled on September 29, 2020 by Jannie Durand, CEO of Remgro, during the presentation to investors of the company’s financial results for the year ended June 30, 2020.

Pieter Uys the president of CIVH indicated that the only current restriction on the strong growth of the company, on the national telecoms market, would be its inability to obtain the necessary capital to realize it.

In November 2019, CIVH launched a fundraising program to raise 6 billion rand (361 million USD). The process that was stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic has recently been reactivated. The money that is expected there will be used for capital expenditure and to repay part of CIVH’s debt over the next two years.

Source: Agence Ecofin