The Qatar Exchange website has shown that Qatar Telecom (Qtel) Q.S.C has announced that it has concluded the acquisition of, via National Mobile Telecommunications Company K.S.C. (Wataniya) a 52.5% subsidiary of Qtel, Orascom Telecom Holdings (Orascom Telecom) 50% shareholding in Orascom Telecom Tunisie (Tunisiana).
Wataniya had an existing 50% shareholding in Tunisiana.
As previously communicated, the stock was acquired for a total consideration of USD 1.2billion.
If reports are to be believed, Tunisia’s state-controlled mobile network operator, Tunisie Telecom has been awarded a 3G license. Tunisie Telecom had paid US$80.2 million for the license.
Tunisie Telecom is majority owned by the state while Dubai’s TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group jointly hold 35%.
There are currently three mobile network operators in the country – the state controlled Tunisie Telcom which is the sole landline operator, and Tunisiana, which presently operates a mobile phone network.
Previously this year, France Telecom’s Orange launched a 3G network in the country, in cooperation with Investec, a Tunisian subsidiary of the Mabrouk group. Orange holds 49% of the joint venture. The company was awarded its operating license in June 2009.
According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, the country has 9.95 million mobile phone users, which represents a population penetration level of 94%.
Telegeographhy writes…Wataniya Telecom has announced that its Tunisian wireless subsidiary Tunisiana (Orascom Telecom Tunisie, OTT) has welcomed the addition of its three millionth subscriber. ‘Since our 50% acquisition of Tunisiana in 2002, the company has experienced successful years of operations placing it today at the forefront of the telecommunications industry in Tunisia,’ said Ahmad Haleem, chief executive officer of Wataniya International.
According to Telegeography’s GlobalComms database, relations between Tunisiana’s shareholders Wataniya and Orascom – have been strained; in May last year Orascom announced it would file a request for arbitration against Wataniya to enforce what it claimed to be a contractual right to acquire Wataniya’s 50% stake in Tunisiana. In its suit, Orascom claimed it had been unable to reach an amicable resolution to its assertion that Wataniya had ‘materially breached a [shareholder] agreement’, and was therefore requesting arbitration by the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC’s) International Court of Arbitration. While details are scant as to the exact nature of the disagreement between the two parties, local press reports suggest that Orascom’s decision to litigate was motivated by the Kuwaiti operator’s decision to join a consortium, consisting of Univest, the National Bank of Development of Egypt and Aman Trading, to bid for Egypt’s third wireless licence. Had the consortium been successful (it eventually lost out to Etisalat in July 2006), Wataniya would have been a principal shareholder in a direct competitor to Orascom’s Egyptian wireless arm MobiNil.
