Etisalat funds Maroc Telecom takeover

French conglomerate Vivendi looks set to continue its offloading of telecom interests after Emirates-based Etisalat announced that it has secured funding to buy the French firm out of Maroc Telecom. Etisalat signed a share purchase agreement for the acquisition of Vivendi’s 53 per cent stake in the Moroccan operator back in November.

The move will give Etisalat control over Maroc Telecom and will put an end to a long winded battle for the operator that has seen several operators vying for control of the company including Ooredoo, France Telecom, Qatari operator Qtel and South Korea’s KT Corp.

Maroc Telecom, a publicly listed company on both the Casablanca and Euronext Paris Stock Exchanges, is Morocco’s market leading operator with over 18.2 million subscribers in Morocco at the end of December, according to Informa’s WCIS. It also has international operations in four West African countries.

Etisalat said the funds totalling €3.15bn were raised with a group of 17 international, regional and local banks in the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier this month Vivendi accepted investment vehicle Altice’s offer for its mobile operator subsidiary SFR. Under the terms of the offer SFR will merge with Altice subsidiary and cable operator Numericable and Vivendi will receive €13.5bn for SFR as well as a 20 per cent stake in the new merged entity. The firm estimates the total value of the offer at around €17bn.

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