Dear All, Although it is public knowledge that a group associated with the Aga Khan in Kenya and the Shanduka group in South Africa have interests in Seacom, it is not clear who Heracles (the sponsor) is. The fact though is that Jean Pierre de Leu (resident in Kenya and owner of Karibunet) is deeply involved in this project. There is also a Mr. Brian Hilehy referred to as President of Heracles in various articles from SA. The two men were instrumental ib Africa One Project (Fibre Optic Cable around Africa) in the early 1990s. If you bother to scratch any surface on the policics of fibre optic in Africa, Africa One project failed and the sponsors have never refunded the initial deposits collected from various Telcos and countries ib Africa. We need to ask the men to explain what happened and why the refunds have not been made todate. It is important that before we invest in this project, the Government investigates fully so that we do not have another Africa One. Africa has suffered too much by briefcase businessmen. Victor. On 15/01/2008, alice <alice@apc.org> wrote:
Hi all
Out of curiosity, who is SEACOM? rather who are behind SEACOM? Anyone conducted due diligence. Any connection to the Africa One saga?
best alice
Wairagala Wakabi wrote:
Netters, Its backers are saying SEACOM will be the only new cable completed in time to give South Africa the bandwidth needed for the 2010 WC, with "actual production of the fibreoptic cable and undersea facilities" starting next week. SA's SNO, NEOTEL, has helped marshal capital from local financial heavyweights, enabling NEOTEL to be owned 50% by South Africans.
Tut Tut...
Wakabi
Sea cable venture lands big investors
By Lesley Stones, Business Day, November 14 2007
AN UNDERSEA cable promising cheap bandwidth for Africa yesterday finally named its backers, signing up enough well-connected local investors to guarantee its landing rights in SA.
Investment heavyweight Venfin is sinking $75m into the project, taking a 25% stake in the 15000km cable linking SA to India and Europe.
Cyril Ramaphosa's black investment house Shanduka is taking 12,5%, worth $37,5m. Another 12,5% goes to Convergence Partners, a group of black investors led by Andile Ngcaba, the chairman of Dimension Data Africa and a former director-general of the communications department. Nedbank Capital and Investec will provide financing for the $650m project.
SA's second network operator, Neotel, is pumping in a far more modest R20m, and using its telecoms licence to guarantee that the cable can dock in SA.
The local ownership is sufficient to ensure that Seacom meets controversial new conditions being drawn up by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, dictating who can land a cable in SA. The minister is insisting that any cable must be majority owned by African investors to come ashore.
South Africans hold 50% of Seacom, and that rises to 75% African ownership thanks to 25% held by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development's Industrial Promotion Services, a development agency based in Kenya.
The remaining 25% lies with New York's Herakles Telecom, a development group that has invested $4bn in Africa.
Neotel is investing only in the local landing station, but its licence to operate in SA conferred on it the right to land a cable, said MD Ajay Pandey.
"Our understanding is that the country needs international capacity, and the way international cable landing protocols have been defined means we have the opportunity here."
Venfin CEO Jannie Durand said Neotel's licence to land a cable in SA meant everything had been done "legally and correctly". Venfin was backing Seacom for two reasons, he said: "We are hopefully going to make a lot of money out of it and SA needs more bandwidth. We want to bring SA affordable bandwidth to the rest of the world."
Although the cable will cost $650m, it would be partly funded by loans as well as equity, allowing Venfin to take 25% for less than the book value of the project, Durand said.
Pandey believes Seacom will be the onlyThe actual production of the fibreoptic cable and undersea facilities will start next week.
The consortium has already invested more than $10m in a marine survey and engineering of the cable. The actual production of the fibreoptic cable and undersea facilities will start next week.
Seacom will connect Mtunzini in SA to Mumbai in India and Marseilles in France via Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania by June 2009.
Terrestrial links will be built to take its bandwidth to numerous other inland countries. Its capacity of 1,28 terabytes per second is 10 times the capacity on the existing Sat-3 cable around Africa's west coast.
The consortium has promised that it will charge other voice and data carriers significantly less for its bandwidth than they pay to use Sat-3 or satellite services, which should trigger a massive decrease in the cost of phone calls, internet access and data transmissions for African consumers and businesses.
"Improved access for business and individuals in Africa to communications, broadband services and new technology offerings can improve lives and help grow the economies of our countries," said Ngcaba, the chairman of Convergence Partners. "The linking of southern and east Africa with India and Europe is crucial for enhancing development and trade between these key regions."
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