SEACOM

SEACOM:

• Investors: Herakles (backed by Blackstone); Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (founded by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV of Pakistan) through IPS; Venfin (led by South African Johann Rupert); Convergence Partners (led by former South African DoC DG Andile Ngcaba); Shanduka (led by South African Cyril Ramaphosa); Neotel (has pledged ZAR 20 million for cable station)
• CAPEX/Cost : approx. USD 650 mn
• RFS : June 2009
• Financing arranged by Nedbank and Investec
• Suppliers/Contractors : Tyco
• Length 15,000 km
• Links Southern and East Africa, Europe and South Asia
• Capacity : 2 FP, 1.28 Tbps design
  

Source SEACOM/Terabit

• "The connectivity from Egypt to Marseille, France, will be provided through Telecom Egypt's TE-North fibre pairs that SEACOM has purchased on the system. TE-North is a new cable currently being laid across the Mediterranean Sea"
• "SEACOM, which is privately funded and over three quarter African owned, will assist communication carriers in south and east Africa through the sale of wholesale international capacity to global networks via India and Europe"
• "SEACOM will be the first cable to provide broadband to countries in east Africa which, at the moment, rely entirely on expensive satellite connections"
  

• "When it is fully functional in 2009, SEACOM will be a service provider of international fibre optic bandwidth along the east coast of Africa linking South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia to India and Europe"

• SEACOM is 76.25% African owned by: Industrial Promotion Services (26.25%), an arm of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development; Venfin Limited (25%); Convergence Partners (12.5%) ; Shanduka Group (12.5%)
• The remaining 23.75% is held by Herakles Telecom LLC