According to the report, Axian and Afrifund presented their offer in early March 2023 when Telkom’s share was trading at around R38.
However, the partners are facing a potential challenge from MTN, which has previously shown interest in acquiring Telkom. Recently, Telkom warned shareholders it is likely to report a significant decline of 465% to 485% in basic earnings per share for the 2022/2023 financial year. It has also struggled to keep up technologically, having only launched 5G towards the end of last year, more than two years after the bigger players.