JOHANNESBURG – Liquid Intelligent Technologies has completed a significant refinancing exercise, repaying key debt facilities while lining up new funding to support expansion across Africa’s fast-evolving digital infrastructure landscape.
The company, a subsidiary of Cassava Technologies, confirmed the full repayment of its South African rand term loan and US dollar revolving credit facility, a move executives say materially strengthens the group’s capital structure.
Alongside the repayments, Liquid has secured US$410 million in newly arranged credit facilities denominated in both rand and US dollars. The funding package was provided by a syndicate of commercial banks and development finance institutions, underscoring sustained lender appetite for African digital infrastructure assets.
In a parallel capital boost, Cassava Technologies injected an additional US$195 million in fresh equity into the business, further reinforcing Liquid’s balance sheet at a time of rising demand for connectivity, cloud, and data centre services.
“These transactions represent a significant strengthening of our capital structure as we position the Group for accelerated growth,” said Hardy Pemhiwa, President and Group Chief Executive Officer of Cassava Technologies.
Pemhiwa linked the refinancing strategy to the group’s broader technology ambitions, highlighting growing enterprise demand for integrated digital solutions.
“Through our One Cassava ecosystem, we are delivering innovative AI, cloud, data centre, payments, and low-latency broadband connectivity solutions to enterprise customers across Africa,” he said.
The refinancing activity follows the recent sale of a minority stake in a South African data centre subsidiary. The company clarified that Africa Data Centre Holdings remains a wholly owned Cassava Technologies subsidiary, with the equity transaction limited specifically to the South African business unit.
Market observers view the combination of debt repayment, new credit lines, and equity injection as a deliberate effort to recalibrate leverage while preserving financial flexibility.
Looking ahead, Liquid plans to issue a new US$300 million bond to refinance its existing US$620 million bond ahead of its September 2026 maturity. The proposed bond issuance is expected to further reduce leverage and smooth the group’s debt profile.
Analysts say the move reflects a wider trend among African telecoms and infrastructure players seeking to optimise funding structures amid volatile global capital markets and tightening liquidity conditions.
For Liquid, the strengthened balance sheet is expected to support continued investment in fibre networks, cloud platforms, and hyperscale-ready data centre capacity — sectors increasingly seen as foundational to Africa’s digital economy.
