Vodafone Group has acquired 70% of fixed and mobile operator Ghana Telecom from the Ghanaian government for US$900 million, after a special session of the country’s parliament approved the deal.

The deal, which was agreed on in July, had faced criticism from Ghana’s National Democratic Congress and Convention People‘s Party, which said that the price undervalued the group. Parliament approved the deal with a vote of 124 to 74, though not all members were present for the special session, which was called during the summer recess.

The government’s joint committee on finance and communication had previously put ratification of the deal on hold until after the summer recess to allow time to examine it in more detail.

Ghana’s communications minister, Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, said that the sale was a good move, since Ghana Telecom

has a negative net worth of GHC34 million (29.4

million), with assets amounting to GHC552 million and

total liabilities of GHC586 million.

The government submitted an amended version of the deal

to the special session of Parliament, which reportedly

included a clause stating that Vodafone had committed to

invest US$500 million in Ghana Telecom over five years

and excluded a clause stating that the agreement was

valid for 999 years.

The acquisition is part of Vodafone’s strategy to

increase its presence in Africa and ultimately raise its

mobile market share in the region to about 25%.

“Ghana is one of the most attractive markets in Africa,

with mobile subscribers growing at more than 55 percent

per annum,” Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said recently.

In operating in Ghana, Vodafone plans to take advantage

of its experience with rapid network deployment in India

and other emerging markets; the strength of its brand;

innovative services, such as money-transfer offering M-

Pesa; and ultralow-cost handsets.

“I expect that our investment will generate substantial

benefits for Vodafone and for the Ghanaian economy, and

we are delighted that we will be working in partnership

with the government of Ghana,” Sarin said.

According to research from GM Daily publisher Informa

Telecoms & Media, Ghana had 9.24 million mobile

subscriptions at end-June, giving it a penetration of

38.56%. Ghana Telecom’s One Touch, the No. 3 operator in

Ghana’s four-player market, had 1.47 million subs at

end-June, giving it a market share of about 17%.

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T-Mobile USA close to Android launch

Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA unit will begin selling

a device running on Google’s Android software during 4Q,

possibly as early as October, despite delays in the

development of the software platform, according to

reports. Taiwan’s HTC will manufacture the device,

according to the reports, which state that it could be

announced as early as September, pending approval by the

regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

It is understood the device will feature a touchscreen.

Android is Google’s principle attempt to enter the

mobile device space, with long-running rumors of a

Google-branded device failing to be proven accurate.

There are attempts in the industry to reduce the number

of software platforms currently available. Nokia, Sony

Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo announced in June

their intent to create one open mobile software platform

under the auspices of the Symbian Foundation, in

conjunction with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung

Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and

Vodafone.

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Zain begins capital increase

Kuwait's Zain, which has operations across the Middle

East and Africa, has opened subscriptions to its capital

increase, from which it expects to raise US$4.5 billion,

which the company will use to finance future expansion

plans and meet financial commitments. The capital

increase subscription price is KWD0.85 (US$3.17) per

share, equivalent to a par value of KWD0.10 per share

plus a premium of KWD0.75. Zain’s current share price

has been adjusted since March 11, to fully reflect the

impact of the capital increase and the issuance of the

new shares. Zain is present in 22 countries serving over

50 million active customers. “This capital increase will

be instrumental in supporting our target of Zain

becoming one of the top-ten global mobile telecom

operators in the world by 2011,” said Zain CEO Saad Al-

Barrak.