Summary

  • AFRINIC's 2 November 2026 cumulative transfer file retains two M&A entries from 30 June 2025 naming AFRIHOST SP (PTY) LTD as recipient. Eight IPv4 ranges from Afrihost (Pty) Ltd contain 306,176 addresses; eight from Cipherwave contain 8,192. The total is 314,368, with the entries stamped 14:08:44 and 14:15:59 UTC.
  • The first entry also lists AS328871, AS37611 and two IPv6 ranges. AFRINIC says M&A transfers of all three resource families operate under existing non-policy guidelines. Its later ratified Number Resources Transfer Policy remains in implementation work tied to MyAFRINIC V2.

There is a considerable difference between moving a network and moving a line in a register. AFRINIC's cumulative transfer file records the latter with admirable precision. It names a source, a recipient, a time, a transfer class and the resources. It does not offer the public the file that persuaded the registry to change the holder. For a transfer involving more than 300,000 IPv4 addresses, that division of knowledge is the story.

The larger entry is dated 30 June 2025 at 14:08:44 UTC. Its source is Afrihost (Pty) Ltd, its recipient AFRIHOST SP (PTY) LTD, and its class MERGER_ACQUISITION. The eight IPv4 ranges total 306,176 addresses. They include all of 102.182.0.0/16 and 165.255.0.0/16, alongside 169.0.0.0–169.1.255.255 and five smaller ranges. The same entry lists two autonomous system numbers, 328871 and 37611, plus IPv6 ranges 2c0e:7f00::/28 and 2c0f:f4c0::/32. The public table is recording three resource families, not merely an IPv4 sale with a corporate label.

Seven minutes and fifteen seconds later, a second row names Cipherwave as source and the same AFRIHOST SP (PTY) LTD as recipient. It carries eight /22 IPv4 ranges, 8,192 addresses in all, and no ASN or IPv6 transfer set. The sixteen IPv4 ranges across the two rows do not overlap. Together they amount to 314,368 addresses, or 1,228 blocks of /24 size. A reader can reproduce the arithmetic. The registry does not provide a common transaction identifier or the documents that would show whether the two source-side corporate changes belonged to one legal arrangement.

That missing join matters more than the matching recipient name. AFRINIC's transfer guide says an M&A applicant must explain the organizational change, identify the organizations and affected member handles, supply agreement and contact documents, and describe resource utilization. If multiple transactions link the old and new organizations, the guide asks for documentation for each. The published record contains the names, dates, resources and type; it does not disclose the requested legal or utilization evidence. The public can see the decision's output, while the registrar alone holds its basis.

The distinction between a staff procedure and adopted policy is explicit in AFRINIC's own Policy Implementation Experience Report. It says M&A moves involving IPv4, IPv6 and ASNs are accepted under existing guidelines that are not policy, and that the Consolidated Policy Manual does not comprehensively cover all transfer scenarios. The Afrihost SP entries precede the ratification of the Number Resources Transfer Policy in February 2026. That later ratification does not retroactively rewrite how the June 2025 entries were processed.

The next question is when the broader rule becomes operative. At AFRINIC-37, staff reported that implementation work was under way, including procedures with the other RIRs, but technical system work would follow MyAFRINIC V2. The portal had endured years of budget and resource delays, and staff said a limited-scope release was being targeted for the end of 2026. AFRINIC's public ratification summary announces the new policy's ambition. The meeting minutes supply the less glamorous dependency: software and operating procedure still have to catch up.

One decision could change the reading of this case: a public, versioned approval record linking each 2025 row to the applicable M&A guideline, organization identifiers and a non-sensitive statement of what AFRINIC verified. Without it, the archive proves that these resources changed registered hands. It cannot tell outsiders how many corporate transactions were underneath or which documentary checks were satisfied. That gap is made by the publication design, not by a shortage of decimal places.