Morocco’s national telecommunications operator, Maroc Telecom, recently sold 20 percent of its shares, valued at $16 million, in Mauritania’s telecom company Mauritel, to local firm Abdallahi Ould Noueigued (AON), reported Le Calame . The government of Mauritania is now Mauritel’s largest shareholder, with a 46 percent stake in the company.
Maroc Telecom purchased a 54 percent stake in Mauritel in April 2001, the company’s first cross-border investment. The deal committed Maroc Telecom to extend the mobile and land phone services further throughout Mauritania, covering all its major towns within the next five years.
Established in 1960, Mauritel launched Mauritania’s second GSM network in November 2000, and it is serving more that 11,000 subscribers in the two major cities of Nouakchott and Nouadhibou. With a capital of $25.5 million, the company’s 650 employees serve the country’s 2.7 million inhabitants and faces competition only in the cellular market. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
