Middle Eastern cellco Etisalat is to sell its operations in French-speaking West Africa to Maroc Telecom, the Moroccan operator in which it is acquiring a majority stake.
The share purchase agreement will see UAE-based Etisalat sell Atlantique Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary operating under the Moov brand in Benin, Central African Republic, Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Niger and Togo. The sale to Maroc Telecom also includes Prestige Telecom, an Ivory Coast-based company providing IT services to Etisalat’s operations in the region.
Maroc Telecom itself operates in its home country as well as Gabon, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, so the reorganization will generate efficiencies of scale, and a larger procurement and roaming ecosystem, across north and west Africa.
The total value of the agreement for all seven companies is $650m. The deal is subject to various conditions, most importantly the closing of Etisalat’s acquisition of a 53% stake in Maroc Telecom from French media group Vivendi. Competition and regulatory approvals in the six countries in which the operations are based are also needed. Etisalat recently confirmed that it had secured €3.15bn in financing to help fund the €4.2bn deal.
The African mobile market is in the process of considerable consolidation as major local or global players look to improve their scale and reach in a high growth region. Orange, Vodafone/Vodacom and Bharti Airtel are some of the major players, and Etisalat group CEO Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar says Africa remains a strategic region, as the firm looks to diversify its revenue base and ‘cement our regional leadership position’.