Telkom shareholders are referred to the interim results announcement dated 26 November 2010 in which Telkom announced it had mandated management to review options for the exit of the CDMA business of Multi-Links Telecommunications Limited ("Multi-Links"). On 31 March 2011, Telkom and Visafone Communications Limited ("Visafone") entered into a legally binding agreement regarding the sale of the Multi-Links' CDMA business to Visafone for an enteprise value of US$52 million through a number of transaction steps. The proceeds for Telkom will be net of the existing liabilities of Multi-Links CDMA business.
The transaction is conditional on inter-alia regulatory approvals. Upon the successful closing of the transaction, Telkom will retain Multi-Links' fibre network and fixed line operations in Nigeria.
Commenting on the transaction, Jeffrey Hedberg, former Acting Group Chief Executive Officer of Telkom said: "We are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of realigning our business model to focus on our core competencies. Telkom management is of the opinion that the sale of the Multi-Links' CDMA business to Visafone represents the best option available to our shareholders and Multi-Links' customers."
Jim Ovia, Founder and Chairman of Visafone commented: "Visafone recognises that this deal will solidify its position in the Nigerian marketplace and is committed to offering world-class voice and data solutions to existing Multi-Links customers."
Pretoria
01 April 2011
Sponsor: UBS
Many of the statements included in this announcement, as well as oral statements that may be made by us or by officers, directors or employees acting on behalf of us, constitute or are based on forward looking statements.
All statements, other than statements of historical facts, including, among others, statements regarding our mobile and other strategies, future financial position and plans, objectives, capital expenditures, projected costs and anticipated cost savings and financing plans, as well as projected levels of growth in the communications market, are forward looking statements. Forward looking statements can generally be identified by the use of terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "envisage", "intend", "plan", "project", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "hope", "can", "is designed to" or similar phrases, although the absence of such words does not necessarily mean that a statement is not forward looking. These forward looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results and outcomes to be materially different from historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Among the factors that could cause our actual results or outcomes to differ materially from our expectations including but not limited to those risks identified in Telkom's most recent annual report which are available on Telkom's website at www.telkom.co.za/ir.
We caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward looking statements. All written and oral forward looking statements attributable to us, or persons acting on our behalf, are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Moreover, unless we are required by law to update these statements, we will not necessarily update any of these statements after the date of this document, either to conform them to actual results or to changes in our expectations.