DUBAI: Vivendi has agreed terms to sell its 53 percent stake in Maroc Telecom to UAE’s Etisalat for $5.7bn, the latest step in the French conglomerate’s drive to become more media focused.
Looking to pay down its debts and revive its shares, Vivendi is selling assets such as Maroc Telecom and video games maker Activision Blizzard to concentrate on music and pay-TV businesses that it believes have greater growth potential.
The deal for Maroc Telecom marks a return to acquisitions for Etisalat following a pause to digest some problematic purchases, and gives it a market-leading operator in Morocco as part of a drive to diversify from its home country.
The transaction, which Vivendi said would likely be concluded in early 2014, will see Etisalat pay Vivendi ¤3.9bn for the stake, plus a further ¤300m in 2012 dividends from Maroc Telecom, according to separate statements from the buyer and seller yesterday. The sale is subject to various regulatory approvals, with Maroc Telecom also having operations in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mali and Mauritania, and follows protracted negotiations following Etisalat’s initial bid in January.
Qatar’s Ooredoo withdrew its offer in June. Moroccan government owns 30 percent of Maroc Telecom, with the remaining 17 percent publicly traded.
“It’s coherent with what Vivendi is trying to do with the structure of the group, selling subsidiaries that are inefficiently structured and which take out cash through dividends,” said Conor O’Shea, head of media sector research at Kepler Capital Markets in Paris.
Vivendi’s next move could be to float struggling domestic telecom unit SFR, having hired banks to prepare a stock market listing, sources told Reuters in October.
The Maroc deal will be Etisalat’s first big purchase this decade after spending about $12.6bn on foreign acquisitions from 2004 to 2009 that added little to its profits.Reuters
