Telefonica, Portugal Telecom exit Morocco

Spanish carrier Telefonica and Portugal Telecom said this week that they have jointly sold their controlling holding in Moroccan operator Medi Telecom to the other local partners in the company for €800m in cash.

Under the deal, Telefonica and Portugal Telecom will offload a stake of 64.36 per cent – or 32.18 per cent each – to Meditel’s other investors, including FinanceCom, Watanaya and Fipar Holding.

Each European carrier will take €400m in cash for the sale of its stake in Meditel, with the company to be 100 per cent controlled by the local investment trio.

Meditel held second place in the Moroccan mobile market at the end of June this year, with 8.6 million subscribers, following market leader Ittissalat Al-Maghrib with 14.3 million customers. Both these carriers operate GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, while trailing CDMA player Wana records a subscriber base of just 661,000 users.

Mobile penetration in Morocco topped 73 per cent at the end of June.