Douglas Craigie Stevenson

because the group had a difficult start that it has been struggling to overcome ever since.

When it got its operating licence in March 2000, Cell C was already way behind the duopoly of MTN and Vodacom, with their six-year head start. Together the two giants had already signed up almost 5.5million subscribers and had set up their national networks.

Cell C was not helped by a nine-month delay in getting its operating licence, during which time MTN and Vodacom ramped up subscriptions.

To get into the game Cell C had to piggyback — at a fee — on the infrastructure of its rivals, while at the same time servicing billions of rands in debt.

It was a fight it could never win. Despite managing to sign up 17.2million subscribers, Cell C has never really made a net profit.

It didn’t help that the group made a questionable call in opting not to roll out a 3G network, then reversing that decision and having to play catch-up.

In an effort to turn its fortunes around, its major shareholder, Saudi company Oger Telecom, brought in prepaid technology specialists Blue Label Telecoms and Net1 UEPS, which took 45% and 15% in the operator respectively.

The R7.5bn generated from this deal and Cell C’s move into streaming video and fibre services were expected to give it a new lease of life. It hasn’t worked out like that — yet.

Blue Label incurred a headline loss of R105m for the six months to end-november, with its share of losses from Cell C amounting to R123m.

For his part, Craigie Stevenson has not been idle. He took the reins as interim CEO only last week, but has gone on an investment roadshow with Blue Label’s management to outline his plans.

“What is clear,” he says, “is that Cell C has to continue to be agile and adapt quickly to change if it is to be a sustainable player in the telecommunications sector.”

True enough.