Liquid Completes New High Yield Bond Issuance and Other New Debt Financings

Fried Frank advised Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure, cloud computing, cyber security services and intelligent technologies in Africa and other regions, and a key part of the Cassava Technologies group, on its successful raising of $690 million equivalent of new debt financings at the level of Liquid Intelligent Technologies in the form of a $300 million Regulation S / Rule 144A issuance of new senior secured high yield notes, $360 million equivalent of new senior secured term loans and a $30 million new senior secured revolving credit facility. The bond offering launched on March 31, 2026, priced on April 1, 2026 amidst extraordinary market dislocations related to the recent conflict with Iran, and closed on April 14, 2026. The proceeds from the bond offering, together with a portion of the proceeds from the new senior secured term loans, were used to redeem Liquid's outstanding $620 million 5.500% senior secured notes due 2026. The bonds and the facility financings benefit from an extensive security and guarantee package across a range of African and other jurisdictions. Read Cassava Technology's press release for more information.

The Liquid high yield bond issuance represents the latest in a series of recent emerging markets and other high yield bond issuances that our London-based team has helped steer to successful conclusions, including recent offerings by Bidvest, Bally's Intralot and Puma Energy.

Fried Frank also advised Cassava Technologies, the parent of a visionary new pan-African corporate group, on a related series of fixed-income preferred securities issuances, some with convertible features to offer additional equity exposure to the new group, that culminated in 2025 to, among others, US International Development Finance Corporation, the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation (Finnfund), Google LLC and NVIDIA.

The above debt financing and preferred security transactions completed a multi-year series of debt, equity and strategic M&A transactions, all of which Fried Frank also advised on, to establish the perimeter of a new Cassava Technologies group that combines Liquid Intelligent Technologies with Sasai Fintech, Africa Data Centres and various other businesses pioneered by the Econet Group, a diversified telecommunications group with operations across, Africa, Europe, South America and Southeast Asia, and to put in place a robust new capital structure for the group as a whole. The new group represents the culmination of founder Strive Masiyiwa's decades-long vision to create a global technology leader of African heritage providing a vertically integrated ecosystem of digital services and infrastructure and enabling digital transformation.

The Fried Frank team on the high yield bond transaction along with the earlier preferred securities issuances and M&A transactions was led by corporate partners Ashar Qureshi and Aseet Dalvi. The Fried Frank team on the new facilities transactions was led by corporate partner Ashar Qureshi and finance partner Jons Lehmann.

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