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Ahead of its 2019 TMT Finance Africa – the premier conference for the telecom, media and technology (TMT) industries – London-based news and events company, TMT Finance, has forecasted over $10 billion in TMT transactions for Africa in 2019. In a statement released on Monday, TMT Finance said the transactions will come from infrastructure initial public offering (IPO) and mergers and acquisition (M&A) deals.  

TMT transactions in Africa are expected to keep growing, according to the investment news provider, due to increasing dealflow across the region and appetite from global investors. TMT Finance has said that it expects 2019 to be a record year for investment and M&A deals in TMT infrastructure with many large deals planned, particularly by telecom infrastructure providers looking to float their IPOs.

One of the major TMT deals expected this year was reported last week by TMT Finance, regarding the acquisition of a majority stake in South Africa's Teraco Data Environments by Berkshire Partners LLC, a Boston-based investment firm. Based in Johannesburg, Teraco is a provider of colocation data centre infrastructure and the largest provider of data centre services in Africa.

The $1 billion deal was said to be valued at 22 times the company’s 2018 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $40-45 million. TMT Finance reported that the sale of the Permira-owned datacenter also attracted interest from global industry players Equinix and Digital Realty.

Companies expected to float IPOs in 2019 include leading regional African digital and mobile telecom infrastructure operators such as Liquid Telecom, IHS Towers, Eaton Towers and Helios Towers Africa. These companies have reportedly hired investment banks to arrange for IPOs and are expected to float or consolidate their sector in the next 12 months.

National telecom operators in Madagascar and Kenya are also reportedly considering selling some stakes to investors. Seacom of South Africa and MainOne of Nigeria are also weighing sale and investment options.

The 2019 TMT Finance Africa, which will take place in Cape Town on March 28, will assess the latest investment opportunities in the sector. Over 60 key speakers have been announced for the event, which will feature CxOs and senior executives from Vodacom, MTN, Helios Towers Africa, CSquared, Dark Fibre Africa, Seacom, Angola Cables, Standard Bank, IFC World Bank, DLA Piper, Rand Merchant Bank, WIOCC, Paix Data Centres, BCX, European Investment Bank, Investec Asset Management, GreenWish Partners, Convergence Partners, among others.