The Orange Group is to sell its entire 70% stake in Telkom Kenya, the nation’s third biggest mobile operator and Kenya’s incumbent fixed line operator, to Helios Investment Partners.

Telkom Kenya had four million mobile customers at the end of June 2015 according to figures published by the regulator.The two parties signed a binding agreement on November 9th and the deal is still subject to approval from the relevant authorities.

The selling of a telco appears to be a reversal of a previous acquisition based strategy.

In October Telecoms.com reported that Orange said it was to concentrate on expansion in Africa, the Middle East and Spain and the mobile financial services vertical market, as outlined in its five year manifesto Essentials2020. It announced the creation of a holding company to unify operations across AMEA, with offices in four new countries in the region and a new Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of operations, Bruno Mettling, who had previously been credited with the Orange group’s transformation.

In July it was revealed that Orange planned to acquire four of Airtel’s subsidiaries in Africa, as part of its expansion. Orange announced it has agreed to acquire Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone. This was part of a previously announced strategy to grow revenues in African by 5% a year until 2018, with Orange’s African operations contributing just 11% of the Orange Groups total revenues.

In a statement Orange said the sale is part of an ‘optimizing’ of its portfolio of assets and that Africa and Middle-East region is a strategic priority for the Group.

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