VODACOM, SAFARICOM BUY MOBILE MONEY PLATFORM

NAIROBI: Kenya’s leading telecom firm Safaricom and South Africa’s Vodacom said yesterday that they had completed the acquisition of popular mobile money platform M-Pesa from Britain’s Vodafone. “The transaction will accelerate M-Pesa’s growth in Africa by giving both Vodacom and Safaricom full control of the M-Pesa brand, product development and support services as well as the opportunity to expand M-Pesa into new African markets,” they said in a statement. The companies did not disclose the value of the transaction, which was first announced in 2019 and completed via a newly-created joint venture, but last year Safaricom’s then chief executive Bob Collymore said the deal could be worth about $13 million (R244m). M-Pesa, launched in Kenya more than a decade ago, has evolved from a basic mobile money transfer application into a fully-fledged financial service platform, offering loans and savings in partnership with local banks, plus merchant payment services. It has grown to become the largest payments platform in Africa, with 40 million users. Reuters

TRANSCEND Property Fund said yesterday that its management was taking steps to ensure that a sound financial and liquidity position was maintained through the period of uncertainty brought on by the Covid-19 crisis. This was supported by high occupancies and strong positive cash flows generated by Transcend’s portfolio, although management and the board were aware that the impact of the “lockdown” and a slowdown in economic activity might affect these conditions in the short term. The company also had no commercial bank debt obligations maturing in the next 12-month period. Transcend’s portfolio extends across 4 722 individual units that are let on month-tomonth leases. The portfolio achieved a 95.7 percent occupancy at March 31, and an average collection on rental income of 97 percent. Monthly and quarterly rental collections continued uninterrupted to date. An income declaration process for tenants whose income had been affected by the pandemic had been implemented.