Maroc Telecom's Ownership Changes Hands

Emirates Telecommunications Corp., otherwise called Etisalat, has presently gotten in settlements with Vivendi over its stake in the Maroc Telecom business in Africa. The deal regards facilities in the Central African Republic, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Togo, Niger, and Benin, and is said to be worth around US $650 million. It forms part of the United States $5.8 billion acquisition from Vivendi for the Abu Dhabi-based company.

Etisalat agreed in the last months of 2013 to take over the facilities as part of the getting of Vivendi's 53 % stake which it presently holds in Maroc Telecom. Etisalat is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the Middle East, and this takeover proposal will be the biggest of its kind for a phone carrier in the region.

The Maroc Telecom business runs primarily in West Africa, but under its new ownership it would offer Etisalat with operations past Morocco, Mali, Gabon, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. Currently, the supplier of the telecoms facilities for Etisalat in both the African and Middle Eastern areas is telecom figure Issam Darwish's company IHS Towers, and it is believed that this service will be extended for Maroc Telecom. Solutions will possibly be expanded to Egypt and Nigeria.

Shares in Emirates Telecommunications Corp. have seen an uptick in recent times, with a nought.4 % rise seen in the previous week, making each share worth approximately 11.45 dirhams. Experts have kept in mind that the consolidation of the Maroc Telecom company by Etisalat will likely provide more earnings for the company, with management simplified as the company's operations are handled from headquarters in Casablanca in Africa as opposed to the United Arab Emirates.

The sale will certainly be part of France-based Vivendi's program to sell off its telecommunications assets as it goes through improvement to become a more media focussed company. It plans to provide music, European films, Internet services, and paid for TV in Brazil. Its French telecommunications devices have currently been offered to business such as Altice SA for a price of United States $23 billion.

The sale will be moneyed with the proceeds from a EUR 3.15 billion (or US $4.4 billion) discount that Etisalat has made with 17 banking corporations, and need to be finished by the end of May 2014.