The Koreans are here. South Korea’s Korea Telecom (KT) has said it is set to buy a stake in Tunisia’s Tunisie Telecom, a firm that was established in 1995 and has around six million subscribers.
The report found in a stock market filing, showed that the firm is set to buy a stake in Tunisia based firm after dropping its bid to buy a controlling stake in Morocco’s Maroc Telecom.
The 35% stake in Tunisie Telecom is owned by a Dubai firm which is set to sell it. The Dubai owners have made losses on the state-controlled firm after buying the 35% stake for $2.25 billion in 2006, which is now worth a little around $650 million.
Talks between the Dubai-based firm, Dubai Holdings’ Emirates International Telecommunications (EIT) and Korea Telecom have not began. In August, Libya’s sovereign wealth fund showed interest to buy the stake but its not known if they still have interest in the stake. KT’s bid might face opposition just like it did last year, when it wanted to buy a stake in South Africa’s Telkom but was stopped by the government. Is it OK for foreign firms to buy firms in Africa? Was the SA government right to stop KT from buying a stake in Telkom?