In Late 2015, France Telkom Orange announced it would offload its 70% in Telkom Kenya marking the exit of the player in the Kenyan market. The deal has since been completed which saw Helios Investment Partners acquired 60% of the company with the Kenya government increasing its stake in the firm to 40% with the acquisition of the other 10%.
The news was followed by the announcement that the Telco would be laying off a third of the workforce by Q1 2016 as part of its workforce rationalisation plans with the view of realigning its goals and interest. The exercise spearheaded by PricewaterhouseCoopers saw 500 employees from its 1,600-strong workforce affected.
The firm then embarked on the hiring of its top executives to spearhead its new vision, which saw Frenchman Aldo Mareuse take over as CEO. Others who joined included Amer Atwi in heading mobile business, George Mokogi as head of carrier services as well as former Access Kenya Deputy CEO Kris Senanu as the MD of its Enterprise Division.
As part of the sale, Telkom Kenya was to continue using Orange’s branding for a period of 18 months. According to Business Daily, the telco is set to rebrand in April 2017 as it continues to transition. The details of the rebrand are not yet public but the telco is seemingly ahead of schedule in the exercise.
