Valuation of telecommunication assets in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

There is still scant knowledge in the economic and international business literature regarding two issues: - Valuation methods of modes of market entry and of investment by an international telecom operator, - The case of Africa as a host continent for these investments. The thesis deals with foreign investments in Africa in the telecom sector, focusing on two entry modes: license awards and acquisitions of local operators. Its objective is to demonstrate on what extent « local » factors (related to the host country and its local telecom market) have an impact on the valuation of these investments in sub-Saharan Africa. This work covers the issues of the strategic interest of these investments, the methods to valuate these investment opportunities, as well as the different factors to take into account in this valuation. A database has been developed, gathering all deals made by multinational operators in sub-Saharan Africa over 2000-2010. Several quantitative analyses have been conducted as from this corpus, in order to identify the determinants of deal amounts. This work demonstrates the lack of regularity and rationality in deals’ prices of the telecom sector in Africa.