South Africa's third largest mobile operator, Cell C, said on Tuesday it will receive a $350 million cash injection from majority shareholder Oger Telecom and a further $222 million in loans.
Dubai-based Oger Telecom - partly owned by Saudi Telecom - holds a 75% stake in the South African firm. It invested $200 million in 2012 and Cell C said it would make another significant injection in 2014.
Cell C said it also has a further 2.2 billion rand ($222 million) in loans from Nedbank and the Development Bank of South Africa.
Cell C, which has been chipping away at the market shares of bigger rivals Vodacom and MTN, has been asking the industry's regulator to cut interconnection rates to allow for more competitive tariffs.
"The company has a solid business strategy and we are confident that the regulator will make decisions that give smaller players a better chance of being sustainable competitors," Mohammed Hariri, chairman of both Cell C and Oger Telecom, said in a statement.
Cell C expects to use the fresh funding to improve network quality and boost its capital structure.
It has increased users by about 2.5 million to 11.5 million in the last nine months.
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