Vodafone Ghana has indicated it would be able to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) after dealing with some debt restructuring issues with the government.
The telecoms firm was expected to list on the GSE as part of its takeover of the then Ghana Telecom.
However years after the takeover, Vodafone is yet to go public.
Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ghana, Yolanda Cuba told JoyBusiness they have made some progress with the government which has about 30 per cent stake in the company.
She said, “The whole thing around listing is hinged on satisfaction in our balance sheet, and also moving away from the negative equity which is one of the requirements before you can list.”
Yolanda Cuba added, “…Would take time to actually carry out because it’s dependent on the profit of the company to actually carry out what we call negative equity on the balance sheet of the company and like I said, that’s one of the listing requirements in Ghana.”
Improving Earnings
According to the Vodafone CEO, the company is making progress in returning to some good profits after it acquired Ghana Telecom in 2008.
“…And also in terms of what I mentioned around the balance sheet and structure of government, the government has actually shown incredible commitment to the sustainability of Vodafone Ghana and actually given us already the commitment around restructuring our balance sheet.”
Restructuring
She added, “So we’ve made progress and I’m grateful for the progress that we’ve made and basically right now we’re trying to iron out a few issues before we can implement the restructuring.”
Yolanda Cuba said, “So worst case scenario on the restructuring if I have my way, it would be done by the end of this year and then the only thing that we would be dealing with is the negative equity and then when the shareholders decide when they want to do it.”
She added, “It’s not the call of management, it’s about when to list.”
Vodafone is said to have moved to third place in terms of market share after Airtel/ Tigo merged.
4G Service
On acquiring a 4G service, the Vodafone boss noted that it is still interested in taking up the service but that would be based on a “right” price being offered by the government.
