In what is one of the largest amount of funding raised by any telecoms operator in Africa, Smile Communications, a 4G LTE broadband provider with presence in Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, has just raised $365 million in funding, BiztechAfrica reports.
That is $50m of equity funding, raised from the Public Investment Corporation on behalf of Government Employees Pension Fund, and an additional $315m "multi-tranche, multi-jurisdictional debt facility led by African Export-Import Bank with participation from the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Diamond Bank PLC, Ecobank Nigeria, the PIC, the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited and Standard Chartered Bank".
The money will be used to improve quality of service, in Smile's current countries of operation, and also launch in the Democratic Republic of Congo by 2016.
This current funding round bring the total funding raised by Smile, since its inception in 2007, to about $600 million.