By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-South Africa rail financier, Thelo Rolling Stock Leasing Pty Limited is seeking to partner Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya in its bid to sale 30 percent of its equity stake in the company, a Bloomberg report said on Friday.
According to the report, the company is seeking partner to buy the 30 percent equity stake and help win new contracts around sub-Saharan Africa.
The company is looking for “a strategic equity partner that will lead the company forward. “We need a partner with deep pockets. There are billions and billions of rands worth of projects in Africa,” Blomberg quoted Lumkile Mondi, chairman of the company as saying by phone from Johannesburg.
Mondi said South Africa is part-way through a 312 billion-rand ($27.8 billion) infrastructure-development program to improve its rail network and better the efficiency of raw-materials exports.
‘’Closely held Thelo is targeting similar programs in countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya as it seeks to expand across the continent,’’ the Thelo Rolling chair said.
Mondi further affirmed that Thelo, 50 percent owned by South Africa’s International Development Corp., is in talks with African Exim Bank about a $200 million loan. The company announced a $17.3 million deal Friday to finance four locomotives and 75 iron-ore wagons over 10 years for Swaziland Railway.
