MTN Group to sell off $243m stakes in Jumia Technologies

MTN Group Ltd., Africa’s telecommunications giant, is preparing to sell out a section or all of its $243 million interest in Jumia Technologies AG, as Africa’s largest internet provider appears to pay down debt and enter new markets, according to information from sources familiar with the development.

MTN, which had earlier marked the online retailer as a non-core business, is enlivening plans for a sale after Jumia’s shares pitched 142 per cent this year, recuperating from a dip in 2019. Although, no end choice about the sale has been made, due to the fact the plans are private, Bloomberg reports.

Jumia, popularly called Africa’s Amazon, operates in 14 African international locations which include Nigeria and Ivory Coast, where Jumia Technologies AG still lacks distribution infrastructure. The business enterprise, headquartered in Germany and run with the aid of its two French founders, Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, had dropped under its initial public offering rate in 2019 after troubled transactions in its Nigeria enterprise were uncovered.

The Johannesburg-based MTN has been disposing of non-core property as part of the company’s approach to limit debt and drive growth for the future.

MTN Group additionally has a 29 percent stake in IHS Towers, which it can also liquidate in the future.

Meanwhile, Africa’s biggest wireless service by footprint has generated 14 billion South African Rand ($812 million) in sales of assets that included selling its towers holdings in Ghana and Uganda to American Towers Inc.

The company plans include the bid for a permit to enter Ethiopia, one of the biggest markets in Africa that are to privatize its telecommunications industry.