CAK Gives Greenlight For Airtel And Telkom Kenya To Merge

The dream to have Airtel and Telkom Kenya merge to form another big force in Kenya’s telecommunication sector is soon becoming a reality after the Communications Authority (CAK) gave a green light.

The regulator has, however, allowed the transaction to proceed on condition that the two telecommunications, upon merging do not make any new sale over the next five years.

The new condition is the first of its kind where a regulator limits transactions of the players on the market. This means the two entities will not be allowed to make a new sale within the first five years.

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CAK says the condition is to ensure that the Airtel and Telkom Kenya stick together and honor their agreement of operating as a single entity.

“The Competition Authority has authorised the proposed transaction as set out herein on condition that … the merged entity, or part of it, is restricted from entering into any form of sale agreement within the next five years,” said CAK.

In response to Communication’s Authority directive, Telkom Kenya said:

Our attention has been drawn to various reports regarding the Conditional Authorization of the intended merger of Businesses between Telkom Kenya Limited and Airtel Networks Kenya Limited.

We are continuing to engage all the regulators as well as other critical stakeholders in the transaction process to facilitate receipt of the requisite approvals and appropriate conditionalities required to progress the actualization of the transaction.

We continue to acknowledge the support received from key stakeholders and are hopeful of positive outcomes of our ongoing engagements and look forward to receiving all approvals imminently.

Concerns had started being raised over the merger taking too long than it had been anticipated with both telcos calling on their customers to remain calm because “good things were on the way coming.”

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