A judge at the English High Court has sanctioned a restructuring plan proposed by pan-African operator Smile Telecoms Holdings. Law360 reports that under the USD230 million rescue plan, a Luxembourg financial institution owned by a Saudi Arabian family, known as 966, will buy 100% of the shares of Smile, after Lord Justice Richard Snowden ruled that only the creditor buying the Mauritius-based operator has a genuine interest in the deal for the purposes of the court’s review. Smile Telecoms Holdings was founded in 2007 and provides mobile and broadband services in Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania, with plans to launch in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The development comes one year after an initial restructuring plan was approved by the company’s lenders, which saw an injection of USD51 million in funding from Smile’s former majority shareholder, the Al Nahla Group, and rescheduling on debt repayment until post-March 2022.