DUBAI: Etisalat, which is set to buy a majority stake in Maroc Telecom, has agreed to sell its West African business to the Moroccan firm for $650m to tap its expertise in that region.
The deal will enable the United Arab Emirates telecom operator to offload assets that have added little to its bottom line to Maroc Telecom, whose operations in Gabon, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania posted a 9.5 percent increase in revenue last year.
“Maroc Telecom has done pretty well with its own operations in sub-Saharan Africa, so Etisalat’s thinking seem to be that it should take advantage of Maroc Telecom’s demonstrable expertise in that region,” said Matthew Reed, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media in Dubai.
Etisalat yesterday said it is selling Atlantique Telecom, its wholly owned West African subsidiary that has mobile operations in Central African Republic, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Niger and Togo, plus its Benin unit and separate regional information technology.
“Etisalat took on operations in quite difficult and competitive markets where there was probably also a language gap which may also have been a problem. Maroc Telecom seems to have cracked operating in Francophone West Africa whereas Etisalat hasn’t, although Etisalat’s Nigeria affiliate is doing well,” Reed said.
Reuters
