IMAP South Africa advises WIOCC, a leading African fiber network provider, on $80 million equity capital raise
WIOCC’s terrestrial strategy, which includes deployment of metro and national networks in key locations, will be extended to include new countries and metropolitan areas
IMAP is pleased to announce that the IMAP team based in South Africa (Verdant Capital) advised WIOCC Holding Company Limited (or “WIOCC”) on an $80 million equity capital raise. CAPE IV, a fund managed by leading African private equity fund manager African Capital Alliance, invested $75 million of equity. The balance was invested by management and an existing shareholder.
The equity raised was supplemented by a debt capital raise. The total capital raise of $200 million will be used to expand its connectivity within Africa and internationally, and through Open Access Data Centres (or “OADC”) - a newly created WIOCC Group company - to launch a network of pan-African data centers optimized to serve the needs of the cloud provider and wholesale community.
As well as introducing a strong new investor into the company, the capital will be used to support WIOCC’s expansion strategy across Africa and accelerate its investment in enhancing the continent’s digital infrastructure. Strategic investments in the new Equiano and 2Africa international subsea systems will augment and complement WIOCC’s existing core network infrastructure, cost-effectively adding multi-Terabits (Tbps) of capacity and significantly increasing its options for delivering the high-availability solutions demanded in markets across Africa. WIOCC’s terrestrial strategy, which includes deployment of metro and national networks in key locations, will be extended to include new countries and metropolitan areas, increasing its portfolio of end-to-end solutions for clients across Africa.
African Capital Alliance was attracted to the investment by the clear vision to develop high quality and synergistic assets and solutions to support its long-term client partnerships. The investments will further position WIOCC to take advantage of the accelerating migration of infrastructure and services into the cloud, driving demand for data transmission, storage and processing in wholesale, enterprise and consumer end-markets in Africa, and bringing forward realisation of WIOCC’s vision to make an enduring contribution to Africa’s communications.
The IMAP team in South Africa (Verdant Capital), led by Ed Higenbottam and Edwin Siebani advised WIOCC throughout the capital raise process.