Qatar Telecom QSC, the country’s largest company, and Princesse Holding of Tunisia agreed to buy 50 percent of Telecom Tunisie for $1.2 billion from Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Holding, which is looking to cut debt.
Qatar Telecom’s unit Wataniya Telecom signed an agreement with a group led by Princesse Holding, a closely held company based in Tunis, to purchase the stake, Qatar Telecom said in an e-mailed statement today. Wataniya already holds 50 percent of Telecom Tunisie, or Tunisiana, as the North African country’s biggest private telecommunications company is called.
The deal won’t hamper a planned $6.5 billion merger between Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris-controlled Orascom Telecom’s parent company, Weather Investments SpA, and Russia’s VimpelCom Ltd. to create the world’s fifth-largest telecommunications group by subscribers. Orascom and VimpleCom said today that they support the Tunisian deal.
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