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UAE telecom giant Etisalat said on Wednesday its shareholders have given the green light to borrow money to fund a possible purchase of Vivendi’s 53-percent stake in Morocco’s Maroc Telecom. “Etisalat’s shareholders approved the board’s recommendation to raise external funding in excess of the corporation’s capital,” the operator said. Use of the money “is still subject to finalisation of remaining terms and conditions to acquire Vivendi’s stake” in Morocco’s largest operator. The UAE group, which is 60-percent owned by the government, is competing with Qatar’s Ooredoo, formerly known as Qatar Telecom, for the stake. The two have made offers said to be in the range of 4.6 billion-4.7 billion euros ($5.94 billion-$6.07 billion) for Vivendi’s stake, which is up for sale as part of its revamp. Vivendi’s 53 percent shareholding in Maroc Telecom is now worth 4.34 billion euros. Maroc Telecom offers fixed-line, mobile and Internet services in the kingdom and is one of Africa’s top telecom firms, with units in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mali and Mauritania. The buyer will inherit a firm that has been a reliable cash machine for Vivendi but has seen slower growth in recent years, analysts say, although there is growth potential in sub-Saharan Africa, where sales and profits rose last year. For Vivendi, the sale of Maroc Telecom is crucial to its ambition to lessen exposure to capital-intensive telecoms and focus on its media activities in video games, pay TV and music. Investors have been eagerly awaiting progress on the divestments, especially after Vivendi’s attempted sales of its video games and Brazilian telecom units fell through. Vivendi previously said the Maroc Telecom sale would not be finalized before the autumn and that it was working closely with the Moroccan state, which owns 30 percent of Maroc Telecom and will have to approve the buyer. |
