The company quietly building a fibre giant in South Africa

African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), through consortiums led by it, has acquired controlling stakes in two major fibre network operators (FNOs), namely Octotel and MetroFibre, in recent years.

The consortium owns 100% of Octotel and is the biggest MetroFibre shareholder, with a 28.5% stake. If you were to combine these two networks, the result would be the third-largest fibre network in the country.

AIIM initially bought an 18.14% stake in MetroFibre from Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital in 2022 before upping its stake in the FNO to 25.8% through further acquisitions from Sanlam Private Equity and a minority shareholder.

A few years later, it looked at Octotel and agreed to buy the FNO from Actis in March 2024. Actis acquired a controlling stake in Octotel for R2.3 billion in 2020.

The deal was subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions, which the companies obtained in August 2024.

South Africa’s fibre space features several prominent players, with Vumatel and Openserve being the market’s powerhouses. MetroFibre is the fourth largest FNO in the country, while Octotel is the sixth largest.

MetroFibre owns and manages open access fibre infrastructure in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, North West, and Mpumalanga, while Octotel operates on open access fibre network in the Western Cape.

Combining their networks would make them highly competitive with Vumatel and Openserve in terms of homes passed by their networks.

For reference, Vumatel’s network passed just over two million homes as of December 2024, while Openserve’s network had passed nearly 1.35 million homes by the same date.

Herotel currently sits in third with just under 575,000 homes passed.

However, if you were to combine MetroFibre’s 510,000 homes as of December 2024 and Octotel’s 372,000 homes as of June 2024, the network would be the third largest in the country, with 882,000 homes passed.

Not only has AIIM invested in the FNO space, but it received regulatory approval from the Competition Tribunal to acquire South African Internet service provider (ISP) RSAWeb in early February 2025.

RSAWeb is a downstream ISP focused on fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and fibre-to-the-business services in South Africa. However, it also offers cloud infrastructure, enterprise connectivity, and mobile data management services.

It’s important to clarify that technically RSAWeb as acquired by Tario 892. However, Tario 892 lists its business address as African Infrastructure Investment Managers in Newlands, Cape Town.

The Tribunal’s approval came after the Competition Commission recommended that it approve the transaction on 21 January 2025.

“Following the implementation of the proposed transaction, Tario 892 will exercise sole control over RSAWeb,” the Tribunal said in a statement.

MyBroadband asked AIIM about its intentions for these fibre networks and whether it plans to take on South Africa’s fibre giants, but it hadn’t responded by publication.

The table below summarises the latest number of homes passed and connected with FTTH connectivity in South Africa.

We have included a combined figure for MetroFibre and Octotel for comparison purposes.