UAE Etisalat Hopes To Complete Buy Of Vivendi’s Maroc Tel Stake By End Of May

Etisalat expects to complete its 4.2 billion euros ($5.78 billion) purchase of a controlling stake in Maroc Telecom by the end of May, a top executive at the United Arab Emirates company said on Tuesday.

In November, Etisalat agreed to buy Paris-listed Vivendi’s 53 per cent holding in Maroc Telecom for 3.9 billion euros, plus a further 300 million euros in 2012 dividends from the Moroccan firm.

Maroc Telecom has operations in Gabon, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Mali.

“It depends on regulatory approvals from the different countries where Maroc Telecom is operating. Based on our current estimation it will be before the end of May,” Serkan Okandan, Etisalat’s chief financial officer, told Reuters by telephone, when asked when he expected the deal would be completed.

“We expect to get all the approvals before the end of May and depending on that we are expecting to close that transaction.”

Etisalat reported a 70 per cent jump in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday.