Safaricom remains cautious about Yu acquisition

Bob Collymore, Safaricom CEO, said the operator had already given up interest in smaller rival Yu by the time the regulator issued tough conditions on any takeover deal.

“I said last week and still maintain that Safaricom is no longer interested in this deal,” Collymore told Business Daily. “The decision we must make is whether to come back to it or not.”

A main sticking point is the M-Pesa money service. Safaricom is unhappy that it would need to open up its M-Pesa agency network – as a condition of a Yu deal – to rivals Airtel, Telkom Kenya Orange and MVNOs.

In February, both Safaricom and Airtel expressed an interest in Yu, owned by Essar Telecom.

Safaricom had an eye on buying Essar Telecom’s passive infrastructure (located on 453 sites), while Airtel was keen on Yu’s GSM licences and subscribers

However, the industry regulator attached strict conditions, including the payment of Essar Telecom’s outstanding licence fees.