Real estate assets may go solo

TELKOM plans to break out of its telecommunications towers and move its real estate assets into a separate unit that may then be listed on a stock market, according to two people familiar with the matter. The new entity, which would be run by a new, property-focused management team charged with generating extra revenue for Africa’s biggest landline provider, said the two people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. Pretoria-based Telkom has one of the largest real estate portfolios in South Africa and chief executive Sipho Maseko wants it to contribute more to earnings, they said. The move extends a turnaround strategy at the former phone monopoly under Maseko, who has cut costs and helped to engineer a near quadrupling of the stock price in his four years at the helm. The workforce has been reduced by about half to 12 000 people and the wireless unit is now profitable. – Bloomberg