African Rainbow Capital acquires stake in Fibre player Metrofibre Networx
Johannesburg, South Africa, 14 March 2016 – MetroFibre Networx is pleased to announce that African Rainbow Capital has acquired a 18,14% shareholding in the company.
African Rainbow Capital (ARC) is a subsidiary of Ubuntu-Botho Investments (Pty) Limited (UBI), a broad based black empowerment investment holding company. UBI was created in 2004 with its main purpose of being Sanlam’s empowerment partner. The shareholders of UBI include women’s groups, churches, trade unions, youth groups and traditional and community leaders, across all nine provinces. ARC’s directors include Patrice Motsepe, Johan van Zyl, former CEO of Sanlam, and Johan van der Merwe, former CEO of Sanlam Investments.
Following the investment by ARC, Sanlam Private Equity remains the controlling shareholder of MetroFibre Networx.
Steve Booysen, Executive Chairman and CEO at MetroFibre Networx says: “MetroFibre is a growing business with an excellent customer base and an unrivalled quality network that is continuing to expand into key areas throughout Gauteng. We believe that through our new partnership with African Rainbow Capital and the capital injection their investment into our business provides we will be able to further grow and expand our network and service offerings. It also enables us to continually innovate and invest in these stated network expansion plans.”
MetroFibre Networx is a South African owned and managed open access fibre network and broadband fibre provider, based in Gauteng. Founded in 2010, the company owns and manages South Africa’s first globally compliant Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) open access fibre network. Apart from providing Layer 2 services to over 60 ISP’s and international Telcos MetroFibre provides a host of voice and data connectivity products in the enterprise space.
Some of its most notable successes has included being awarded as the preferred Fibre to the Home (FTTH) provider for Sunninghill by the Sunninghill Association where it has completed projects in more than 40 estates and hundreds of homes in the normal residential areas. The company is also busy expanding its customer base in Lonehill after completing its network build through the centre of Lonehill where it connects to its core route in Witkoppen Road.
In addition various projects are underway at the moment with an expected 2000 homes in Lonehill to make use of their services before the end of 2016. The Witkoppen route enables Metro Fibre to access Broadacres, Kengies and Chartwell as well as the Dainfern area, with these builds nearing completion. More than 20 estates in these areas have already signed agreements With Metro Fibre and site deployment is scheduled to start in the middle of March.
Due to its proximity to Witkoppen road MetroFibre has also got various projects in Paulshof that will be completed in the next quarter. Expansion on its existing footprint in Rivonia and Edenburg will also take place before the third quarter of 2016 and the first estates and residential areas are busy being installed. On the southern side of Witkoppen the company is busy installing fibre at various estates and office parks in Douglasdale.
The awarding of the contract to roll out fibre in Beaulieu Country Estates, Kyalami Glen, Heathcliff, Blue Hills as well as Kyalami Estates has added significantly to the existing network footprint through Barbeque Downs in the south and Kyalami AH in the west. From here MetroFibre is busy expanding into the rest of Kyalami as well as through Carlswald towards Midrand. Other areas they already have infrastructure available includes Sandton, Greenstone and parts of Centurion as well as the east of Pretoria.
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About MetroFibre Networx
Established in 2010, MetroFibre Networx is a South African owned and managed open access fibre network and broadband fibre provider, based in Gauteng. Today MetroFibre owns and manages South Africa’s first globally compliant Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) open access fibre network, over which it connects in excess of 60 cloud, application, voice and Internet Service Providers with their customers. The company enjoys active shareholding and board representation from Sanlam Private Equity, which invested in the company in 2013 to grow its own fibre network.
The MetroFibre leadership team consists of Executive Chairman and CEO Steve Booysen, formerly CEO at ABSA Bank, founding members CTO Johan van der Lith and Eugene Slabbert Head of Network Planning and Project Management, as well as CFO Hendrik Opperman, Head of Sales Gary Webster, Head of Operations Wallis Short and Head of Human Resources Ntsiki Ntuli.
MetroFibre Networx is a MEF Forum member and is licensed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to provide electronic communications services as well as electronic communications network services.
To find out more on MetroFibre and its full list of solutions and services visit www.MetroFibre.co.za.