Top stories
HealthcareFastest-spreading Ebola outbreak to record over 4,000 cases
Clement Bonnerot and Jessica Donati 3 days
Marketing & Media100 industry leaders to take the stage at SA’s largest CMO event
CMO Summit 5 Aug 2026
More news
Why keeping your customers is now the smartest growth strategy
Cristelle Snyman
Your customers know when you’re faking it
Cristelle Snyman
Subscribe & Follow
Advertise your job vacancies
Vivendi breaks off talks on Africa telecoms deal
PARIS: French media giant Vivendi said on Monday, 20 July 2009 that it was breaking off talks on buying telecom operations in Africa from Kuwait's Zain company.
Vivendi "is today suspending discussions begun some weeks ago ... on acquiring a majority stake in (Zain's) telecommunications activities in Africa," the company said.
It said it had made the decision after applying its "usual criteria of profitability and financial discipline, in the best interest of shareholders."
It had aimed to boost its presence in Africa, where it already holds a 53% stake in Morocco's Maroc Telecom. Zain has some 65 million subscribers in all, with 40 million across Africa.
An analyst at Oddo Securities investment group told AFP that Zain was looking to sell the African assets for US$10 billion to US$12 billion.
Vivendi's shares rose on the news, gaining 4.67% in midday trade to €18.27.
Elsewhere in the telecom sector, Egyptian operator Orascom Telecom's president Naguib Sawiris said his company wanted to get a foothold in France, home to millions of north Africans, possibly by buying or teaming up with another firm.
Source: AFP
Published courtesy of
