LTH is a privately owned company which was established in 2004 as an independent telecommunications provider of international, voice, internet and data transmission using fiber and satellite technologies. The company is ultimately owned by shareholders including Royal Bafokeng Nation, CDC Group, Gateway Partners, the Masiyiwa Family, and the Rudnick Family.

Liquid operates its own fiber optic and wireless networks in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Botswana, DRC, Zambia, South Sudan and Zimbabwe, with further commercial presence in Nigeria, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The Company also has a point of presence in  Mozambique. Liquid has also built Africa’s largest independent fiber network, approaching 73,000 km, and operates state-of-the-art data centers in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi, with a combined potential 19,000 square meters of rack space and 80 MW of power.

The scope of services offered by Liquid’s operations varies from country to country; however, its main focus is provisioning mobile operators, carriers, enterprise, media and content companies and retail customers with high-speed, reliable connectivity, hosting and co-location and digital services.

The total Term Loan amount is expected to be c.US$220mn. The proposed IFC investment is for an up to US$75 million investment in the Term Loan, for IFC's own account.

LTSA is the South African subsidiary of LTH. LTH is a Pan-African company with operational locations across Africa.

 This proposed investment is expected to have limited environmental and social impacts, which are expected to be short-term and site-specific and none is expected to be significant. Those impacts can be avoided or mitigated by adhering to recognized performance standards, procedures, guidelines and design criteria as described in the following sections. Thus, this is a Category B project in accordance with IFC’s Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability.

The key E&S issues associated with this corporate investment include i) adequacy of Liquid’s environmental and social management system and risk assessment procedures and its suitability for identifying and managing E&S issues in the various countries of operation; ii) assurance of fair, safe and healthy working conditions for employees and contractors, including, grievance management, security, health and safety, harassment and gender-based violence; iii) enhanced and coordinated engagement with key stakeholders including local communities; and (iv) community health and safety.