By Pan-African telecoms firm Paratus Group has secured funding of US$31 million to support its infrastructure expansion plans. The funding will be used over the next three years to create additional fibre routes connecting Angola, DRC, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, and Zambia.
The transaction was facilitated by Cirrus Capital, a 100% Namibian-owned, broad-scoped financial services company, which acted as the financial advisor and lead arranger on the transaction.
Paratus says the capital injection from Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a private infrastructure development group, and fund manager, Ninety One, will boost connectivity across key regions as well as currently underserved regions and contribute to the group’s goal of doubling revenue within the next five years.
The investment will also be used to finance the completion of the company’s tier one data centre in Angola, a 10MW facility and the largest data centre in the country. It will be Paratus’ fifth carrier neutral data centre in southern Africa, complementing two other tier three data centres in Luanda, Angola.
Schalk Erasmus, CEO of Paratus Group says the investment is part of the company’s intent to enhance cross border fibre connectivity and facilitate economic development in the region.
Chastin Bassingthwaighte, corporate finance associate at Cirrus Capital says this is the sixth capital raising the financial advisor has done for the Paratus group, and the seventh transaction since 2017. These include equity raisings in Namibia and at group level, a debt programme on the Namibian Stock Exchange, and now debt at group level.
