South Africa’s MTN and Its Chinese Backers Look Like They’re Going to Mount Another Bid For An Ethiopian Telco License

South African telecom company MTN together with the state-owned Silk Road Fund of China are reportedly preparing to make another bid to secure a telecom license in Ethiopia.

MTN was outbid last week by a Kenyan-Japanese consortium that also included financing from the U.S. Development Finance Corporation for the first of two licenses that were up for auction. The Safaricom-Sumitomo offer of $850 million for the license was $250 million more than what MTN and the Silk Road Fund put forth.

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by Eric Olander

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