FT 'Planning to Buy Meditel'

Reuters reports that France Telecom (Orange) is in ‘advanced’ talks with the owners of Morocco's second largest mobile operator Medi Telecom (Meditel) to acquire a 40% share in the company.

Moroccan business weekly Acutel wrote over the weekend, ‘It is official. The negotiations between the owners of Meditel, CDG and Finance.com, and Orange are at an advanced stage,’ and went on to speculate that the stake could be priced at around EUR650 million (USD849 million). Spain's Telefonica and Portugal Telecom last year sold their respective stakes of 32.2% each in Meditel to the operator's other shareholders, Moroccan private investment group Finance.com and state investment vehicle Caisse de Depots et de Gestion (CDG) for USD1.15 billion in total.

Whilst the domestic owners have declared they can run the company alone, they have also indicated their openness to a range of options including a stock market listing and a partnership with a new, major player strategic investor. In March 2010 it was rumoured that the UAE’s Etisalat had ‘agreed’ to acquire a 45% interest in Meditel, which offers cellular, broadband and fixed line services, but a deal did not materialise.

TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database notes that France Telecom sold its Moroccan ISP Maroc Connect (Wanadoo) in August 2004 to the CDG and ONA groups, before ONA bought out CDG in 2005; Maroc Connect became Wana, which launched the successful fixed-wireless and cellular brands Bayn and Inwi, along the way attracting a new foreign investor, Kuwait-based Zain Group.

Morocco's Annual Subscriber Numbers Hits 14% Growth Rate

Morocco's mobile phone subscriber base rose by around 14 percent to 22.82 million at the end of 2008, compared to 20.03 million a year earlier, according to telecommunications regulator ANRT. 

Mobile penetration grew to 73.98 percent from 65.66 percent over the same period. Maroc Telecom leads the market with 63.36 percent of mobile phone customers, followed by Medi Telecom with 34.73 percent and Wana Corporate with 1.91 percent.

The mix of prepaid to contract customers remains unchanged at 96/4. The fixed phone subscriber base rose by 24.96 percent to 2.99 million at the end of 2008, compared to 2.39 million subscribers a year earlier. 

Fixed phone penetration thus increased to 9.7 percent from 7.85 percent. Residential customers account for 802.1 percent of all fixed lines.

The number of internet subscribers rose by 43.98 percent to 757,453. Dial-up customers fell by 8.96 percent to 5,454 and ADSL customers frew by 1.34 percent 482,791. 3G internet customers grew five-fold to 268,131 over the same period.

ADSL accounts for 63.74 percent of all internet subscribers, followed by 3G with 35.4 percent.