Safaricom, Equity bank and Nakumatt are the likely future owners of Essar’s Group YU mobile following an application to the Communications Commission of Kenya by the telco to sell infrastructure and customers to rivals Safaricom and Airtel.
Chief Excecutive Officer, Madhur Taneja confirmed the telecommunications struggle to shrug off huge operational losses and its alarming loss of subscribers as well despite roll outs of a number of offers and promotions. Safaricom is however likely to go for YU’s infrastructure to wad off competitors like MTN or Viettel from gaining foothold in the Kenyan operations.
Meanwhile, YU workers have moved to court to stop an impending sale of the company until the firm discloses to them terms of alleged retrenchment plan in the same breath asking the courts to confiscate Taneja’s travel documents to bar him from fleeing.
The 233 workers have asked the court to give the telecommunications company an alternative order to deposit a security of sh 1.25 billion the amount supposed to be due for them in the event of retrenchment.
YU mobile needs an injection of sh 8.54 billion immediately upgrade its network from 2G to 3G which allows for faster data speeds.