London, May 18, 2012 – Leading mergers and acquisition experts from investment banks, African telecom operators, private equity investors and global law firms are meeting in London on June 7 to debate the next wave of deals in the African telecom sector.

Telecom heads from Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Clifford Chance, Goldman Sachs, Lazard and Standard Bank are featuring on the M&A Panel which forms a key session at the TMT Finance & Investment Africa Conference (www.tmtfinance.com/africa). Now in its third year, the conference brings together the major players from the telecom, finance and advisory community in a series of leadership panel debates and keynotes.

This African Telecoms M&A Panel is expected to be especially important this year as industry experts predict a surge in investment into African telecoms over the next 12- 18 months, and a shift in the type of deals taking place. The African telecoms market is ripe for consolidation but deals are complex and will take significant structuring say experts.

“Africa will be the major economic driver of world GDP growth over the next ten years... M&A may be down but cashflow going into the industry is absolutely massive.” said Simon Holden, Global Head of Telecoms at Goldman Sachs International, speaking on the M&A Panel at the TMT Finance Middle East conference in Dubai earlier this month. Holden, who will also speak on the African Telecoms M&A Panel in London on June 7, added: “Opportunities in the future will not come from larger cluster type deals of the past, but in very sophisticated, surgical deals to acquire assets.”

The Africa Telecoms M&A Panel will feature debate on the next wave of deals and the impact of economic, industry and regulatory conditions on strategy and financing. Other key sessions at TMT Finance Africa 2012 include the Telecom Leadership Round Table – Investing in the next phase of growth; Investment Models for Next Generation Networks – Is open access the future?; Maximising ROI for Mobile Towers – How asset sales and outsourcing is shifting the balance; and Raising Finance for African Telecoms.

The programme features over 30 speakers from leading operators, investment banks, vendors, investors, advisers and regulators. Other speakers announced so far include leaders from Avanti Communications, LAP Green, Tata Communications, Wananchi Group Holdings, Helios Towers Africa, IHS, Eaton Towers, IFC, the World Bank, Huawei, Frontier Markets Fund Managers, ING, Investec, the Nigerian Communications Commission, the GSMA, Ernst & Young and Simmons & Simmons.

The TMT Finance & Investment Africa Conference is the leading regional knowledge sharing and networking platform for financial decision makers from telecom operators, service providers, finance and investment institutions, law firms and professional intermediaries. For more details on the programme and registration opportunities visit www.tmtfinance.com/africa/programme

Contact: enquiries@tmtfinance.com

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This release was published on openPR.