According to records of the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA), Starlink's Botswana subsidiary does not have any local shareholding. Instead, Starlink Internet Services Botswana Proprietary Limited is 100% owned by Starlink Holdings Netherlands B.V, an entity registered in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands entity, which was registered in September 2019, has zero employees and one sole shareholder: Starlink Satellite Services Corporation based in Delaware,USA. Furthermore, the Netherlands entity has two board members, namely Lauren Ashley Dreyer (Senior Director of Starlink Business Operations at SpaceX) and Richard Jinu Lee (Head of Tax and Treasury at SpaceX).
Coming back to the Botswana subsidiary, according to CIPA, Starlink Internet Services PTY Ltd was registered on the 17th of May, 2023. According to previous media reports, it was at that time that Starlink submitted its operating license application, which was turned back by BOCRA because it was missing some requisite information. BOCRA later refuted these reports.
The company has three directors: Lauren Ashley Dreyer, Richard Jinu Lee and Topiwa Sandler Chilume. According to LinkedIn, Chilume is the lead consultant at Chilume Corporate Advisors.
BW TechZone reached out to Chilume to enquire about his role as the director and the only Motswana point of contact for Starlink but did not receive a response before publication.
The company's secretary is Debunked PTY Ltd whose representative is Neo Mosamo Ramosamo. BW TechZone was also unable to reach out to Ramosamo before publication.
Although neither Botswana companies law nor BOCRA requires subsidiaries of international private companies to have local shareholders, in other countries, including South Africa, this has been a point of contention and is reportedly why Starlink has not been able to get an operating license yet.
According to proponents of this regulatory requirement, having local shareholders enables the host country to benefit from the operations of a company like Starlink beyond just consumption of the service and also helps to hold the company accountable, via its local shareholders, for any violations of the law.
It is also important to note that while private companies are not required to have local shareholding, the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) requires publicly listed companies to have at least 30% of their shares available for trading by local shareholders. According to the BSE, this allows Batswana to also benefit from the value of these companies. Whether an argument can be made for a similar requirement to be made for private companies of a certain stature remains open for debate.