South Korea's KT is on the verge of acquiring a 20% stake in South Africa's Telkom, in a deal worth around 4.6 billion rand ($581.7 million).
South Africa's chamber of commerce has confirmed that both operators are finalizing contracts to secure the investment deal, BusinessLivereported.
Officially, both companies are stating that there is still no certainty that a deal will emerge, but the operators are believed to have recently completed due diligence investigations.
Analysts also believe that the deal would make sense to both parties, as it would allow Telkom to capitalize on KT's telecom expertise, while Telkom is an attractive investment target.
KT has stated that it began negotiations with Telkom several months ago.
Telkom has been struggling to turn a profit since it lost its original foreign partner, the Thintana Consortium, and the government used its golden share to assume management.
The company sold its Vodacom JV with Vodafone – which had been a key earner - to its erstwhile partner in the venture in 2008.