GLOBAL TELECOM BUSINESS
Etisalat has expressed interest in buying Vivendi’s 53% stake in Morocco’s Maroc Telecom
Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat has told French media company Vivendi that it wants to talk about buying its 53% stake in Maroc Telecom, the listed Morocco fixed and mobile operator.
Vivendi, is widely believed to be planning to restructure its telecoms businesses, which include SFR in France and GVT in Brazil. The company appointed Jean-Yves Charlier, former Colt and BT executive, to head all its telecoms units in September 2012.
Etisalat’s said that its interest in Maroc Telecom “is consistent with our stated strategy of selective expansion in our core [Middle East North Africa] markets and would complement our existing operations in Sub-Saharan Africa”.
Maroc Telecom — locally called Itissalat Al-Maghrib — also has majority stakes in four other operators, Mauritel of Mauritania, Onatel in Burkina Faso, Sotelma in Mali and Gabon Telecom. It is listed on the Casablanca and Paris stock exchanges.
Reports in 2012 suggested that both Qtel of Qatar and KT of South Korea are likely to be interested. France Telecom Orange has 40% of Médi Telecom in Morocco, but is known to be interested in acquiring operations in other west African countries, including Burkina Faso.
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