Etisalat, Orascom and Batelco eye Meditel stake

UAE telecom service provider etisalat, Bahrain's Batelco and Egypt's Orascom are among several foreign companies said to be interested in buying a stake in Morocco's No2 telecommunications firm Meditel.

Meditel is planning to list a stake of more than 25 per cent on the local exchange before the end of this year, three Moroccan dailies reported yesterday.

Meditel's owners, FinanceCom and state fund CDG, aim to sell the stake to institutional investors likely to be telecoms firms from Egypt, Bahrain or the UAE, Al Jarida Aloula, Al Massae and Akhbar Alyoum newspapers reported.

"Othman Benjelloun had okayed on Thursday the plan to list Meditel on Casablanca bourse. The demand for the partial flotation will be submitted to the stock exchange's CDVM watchdog in the next few weeks," Akhbar Alyoum reported, citing unnamed sources at conglomerate FinanceCom group, which is owned by Benjelloun.

The newspapers named etisalat, Batelco and Orascom among several foreign firms said to be interested in buying a Meditel stake.

Officials at CDG and FinanceCom were not immediately available to comment on the reports.

The three newspaper reported Meditel sought to increase its capital through the partial flotation.

FinanceCom and state fund CDG equally own Meditel after buying stakes from Portugal Telecom and Spain's Telefonica for €800 million (Dh4.2 billion) this month. The two groups have said they are open to sell a stake directly to a telecoms operator or list shares on the bourse.

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