Vivendi bids for Zain Africa
Zain has received an offer from France’s largest entertainment groups Vivendi, for its African operations. There is no word on the amount offered but Kuwaiti daily al-Anbaa has reported that Zain’s Group’s Assistant Chief Executive for Business Development and Government Relations Barrak al-Subeih said, “Zain has no objection to go ahead with the deal in case the offered price was in line with the level Zain wants,”.
Vivendi, which owns 53 percent of Maroc Telecom, has said it wants to expand the division in emerging markets. It ended talks to buy a stake in Dubai-based Oger Telecom Ltd. in 2007.
Zain, then known as Mobile Telecommunications Co., bought Celtel International for $3.4 billion in 2005 to expand into 13 African countries, including Kenya and Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation. The company has about 40.1 million subscribers in Africa, about 62 percent of its client base. More than half of its $7.4 billion of annual sales in 2008 came from Africa, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
ITNewsAfrica.com
The reports on the annual sales looks good atleast for Vivendi to buy the company…