Vivendi expects to complete the sale of its 53% stake in incumbent Maroc Telecom to Etisalat on 14 May.
The French conglomerate said all conditions precedent to the deal, agreed in November, have now been fulfilled.
Vivendi, also in the process of…
Vivendi expects to complete the sale of its 53% stake in incumbent Maroc Telecom to Etisalat on 14 May.
The French conglomerate said all conditions precedent to the deal, agreed in November, have now been fulfilled.
Vivendi, also in the process of offloading its French mobile unit SFR to Altice, said the Maroc Telecom sale is in line with its strategy to focus on its media and content activities.
Last year, UAE telco Etisalat said it would buy the majority stake in the Moroccan operator for a total €4.2bn (US$5.8bn), in an effort to expand its operations on the African continent.
The Kingdom of Morocco has a 30% stake in the incumbent, while the remaining 17% of shares are in free float. Under Moroccan takeover rules, Etisalat is required to make a buyout offer to the minority shareholders. However, the telco has not provided details on this.
To finance the deal, Etisalat recently signed a €3.15bn (US$4.36bn) loan agreement with 17 local, regional and international banks.
Separately, the telco announced earlier this week that it would transfer its operations in six West African countries for US$650m to Maroc Telecom after closing the transaction.
The UAE company did not disclose the rationale behind the deal. But according to Matthew Reed, an analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, the decision was motivated by Maroc Telecom’s success with its own subsidiaries in the region – in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mali and Mauritania.
