Jevans Nyabiage
3 July 2009
Nairobi — Investors in the East African Marine System Ltd (Teams), who will not have paid their dues by July 14, will lose their shareholding, the cable's secretariat warned on Friday.
The secretariat said Teams will achieve financial closure on July 14, 2009 when it is expected that all shareholders in the company would have paid their subscription funds.
This announcement follows a board meeting held on July 1, a day after the initial completion date of June 30, 2009.
Mr Michael Joseph, Safaricom chief executive and chairman for Teams, said that more than 95 per cent of the shareholding in the cable had been paid for in full.
"We are holding a substantial amount of funds in the accounts now and we are up to date with all payments due to the contractor, Alcatel Submarine Networks Limited and our ongoing obligations towards them are fully covered," he said.
In the cable, Safaricom has 20 per cent, Treasury 20 per cent, Econet Wireless Kenya Ltd 10 per cent, Telkom Kenya 20 per cent and Kenya Data Networks 10 per cent. Others are Wananchi Telecom Ltd 5 per cent, Jamii Telecom 3.75 per cent, Access Kenya 1.25 per cent and Flashcom 1.25 per cent.
Early reports, already in the public domain, indicate that small investors are the ones struggling to pay up their dues.
"We are looking forward to the closure and the privatisation of the company so those who have not paid in by 14 will have to give up their shares and allow other interested parties to take their place," he said.
Submarine
Teams was initiated by the ministry of Information, when it became clear that a regional submarine optic cable project known as the East Africa Submarine Systems (Eassy) would be delayed.Kenya has already been placing a terrestrial cable connecting different parts of the country to prepare for the going live of the submarine cable.
The cable will be connected to other terrestrial fiber-optic cables including the country's national fiber backbone, the National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure.
Teams is yet to issue its bandwidth pricing. However, Seacom has said it will offer wholesale bandwidth at $200 per megabyte.
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