Etisalat to win control of Maroc Telecom

The struggle for control of Maroc Telecom, which has been rolling on since the start of the year, looks to be at an end. Emirates-based Etisalat signed a €3.9bn deal to acquire a controlling stake on Tuesday.

Etisalat has signed a share purchase agreement for the acquisition of Vivendi’s 53 per cent stake in the Moroccan operator.

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 September, according to Informa’s WCIS. It also has international operations in four West African countries.

Over the course of the year several operators have been vying for control of the company including Ooredoo, France Telecom, Qatari operator Qtel and South Korea’s KT Corp.

The acquisition of Vivendi’s stake in Maroc Telecom by Etisalat is subject to a number of conditions including a shareholders’ agreement.